14 DAY TRIAL // Canadian company Datawind, winner of Indian government’s tender for producing the cheapest Android tablet on the market, has just announced the slate will finally be released in India this weekend.
Although the company won the tender two years ago and said it would deliver 1 lakh (100,000) tablets for only 50 USD (40 EUR) per unit, Datawind has yet to keep its promise.
Dubbed Aakash, only a bit more than 300 units have been delivered in India. In fact, there are 336 lucky students that received the 50 USD tablet, though the company is expected to launch much more in the following months.
We’re not sure if Datawind will be able to release the whole stock of Aakash tablets on November 11, but at least we know the tablet maker will start shipping it this Sunday.
In order to highlight the event, a presentation of the Aakash tablet will be held at United Nations by the Indian mission, on November 28. According to Times of India, Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of Datawind, will also attend the event.
Furthermore, it appears the Indian government plans to offer a limited number of Aakash tablets to some of the members of the UN, though we don’t know how many will be given away and by what ground.
There’s more good news for Indians who are still waiting for the chance to grab the cheapest Android tablet soon to be available on the market.
Datawind said it would refresh Aakash’s hardware and software configuration, so potential customers should know the slate will ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system out of the box.
In addition, the Aakash will be equipped with a 1 GHz single-core processor, a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen display and a battery rated for four hours of continuous usage time. Word is that Datawind will also include a SIM slot, so users can make calls with the Aakash.