Aakash II coming in April, promises Government

Despite various issues of slow production and technical faults surrounding the low-price Aakash tablet, the Indian Government has promised to unveil its upgraded version – the Aakash II – by April of this year. 

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal spoke to the media about the proposed unveiling of the new and improved tablet. He said: ‘We are enhancing the specifications on the basis of feedback we have received from the first version of Aakash…We want to make sure that the upgraded product caters to the need of the customers…We have involved ITI in order to upgrade it…We will be able to bring in Aakash II by April.’

About the initial order for 1 lakh Aakash tablets that the Government had placed with DataWind he said: ‘As of now, DataWind has delivered 30,000 tablets and the rest 70,000 will also have the upgraded version of Aakash II.’

This is good news for college students in the country who are waiting to get their hands on the tablet as they will receive the enhanced version at no extra cost.

Aakash II is said to be 3 times faster than its predecessor, with 50 percent more battery life. Even picture quality will see an improvement in the new tablet.

The Aakash II story has been closely covered by Times of India and Hindustan Times and DataWind and its CEO Sunnit Singh Tuli have been doing some damage control in the face of all the criticism they have been facing.

Mr. Tuli has ventured to answer questions about the reliability of his company and its tablet on ITBusiness.ca. According to a report on Channelworld.in, he is confident that DataWind will be able to fill all their orders in the next 2 quarters.

If DataWind is indeed able to match the growing demand for its low-cost tablet and manufacture a technically sound, spruced-up Aakash II, it might just have a winner on its hands. And the Government, on its part, might just be able to bridge India’s digital divide, the purpose for which Aakash was built in the first place.