A British technology company claims to have developed the world’s least expensive computer tablet for wireless Internet access. At a cost of as little as US$35 apiece, Datawind Ltd. hopes to supply a market of billions of customers, many in underdeveloped countries.

The student tablet released in October costs US$35, but Datawind released an updated version of the Aakash computer tablet this month for the commercial market that costs US$50. It comes with more features. (Aakash is the Hindi word for “heaven.”)

The Aakash tablets reached their first users last fall under an information technology program sponsored by the Indian government. The company provided 100,000 of the tablets, which were designed at its Montreal facility, to Indian students.

Customers have been contacting Datawind with “in the range of about 30,000 orders every day,” said Suneet Singh Tuli, Datawind’s chief executive officer, during a telephone interview with AFP. “It is huge. We have already received over 3 million individual hand users prebooking on this.”

Other companies that offer wireless Internet access devices include Apple, Samsung and Research in Motion. The closest competing device to the Aakash is Apple’s iPad. Singh said they are not Datawind’s competitors because they seek a different kind of customer.

“It is a totally different game,” he said. “IPad people have laptops and computers and want multimedia devices for more mobility.”

Among low-income people in underdeveloped countries, “they are looking for their first device,” he said.

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Source: China Post