14 DAY TRIAL // DataWind is a company that is known for its educational tablets in India that have been offered by the government to schools around the country. Now DataWind is planning to bring the same Aakash tablets to the UK market by the end of the year, TechCrunch says.
Speaking at the Wired 2013 conference in London, DataWind CEO Suneet Tuli revealed that the company is planning to launch no more than 4 different Aakash tablets in the UK. They have rebranded them and will offer the devices under the UbiSlate banner.
But will customers buy a £29 / $47 / €34 tablet or will they brush it off and go looking for something more advanced? It’s true that the original Aakash tablet wasn’t really much in terms of specs, but apparently, the current model can be compared to the first iPad in terms of processing power.
In addition, DataWind has big plans with the next gen of tablets, in which they plan to add a similar processor to that of the iPad 4.
So maybe it’s worth giving these devices a shot after all. The UbiSlate 7Ci is the cheapest alternative and will be available for £29 / $47 / €34.
For this price, customers will get a 7-inch TFT capacitive screen, powered by a Cortex A8 1GHz processer and 512MB of RAM. Datawind has also packed microSD, microUSB, a front VGA camera and 4GB of storage.
The most advanced of the models is the UbiSlate 3G7 and will cost customers £99.99 / $160 / €117 a pop.
DataWind had high ambitions as it was looking to take the tablet world by storm. Actually, the company managed to become the largest tablet supplier in India, overtaking Samsung and Apple’s joint efforts.
CEO Suneet Tuli hopes that the high-end market will slowly start to be pushed aside, if the lower-end one brings out more improved and advanced offerings.