 "Datawind to clear paid orders of Ubislate in 6 weeks")
Bringing some clarity to the current haze, Datawind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli has assured that the company will clear the remainder of paid orders for Ubislate, the commercial version of the Aakash tablet, within six weeks. Tuli was quoted as saying that while the paid orders for tablets, with resistive and capacitive displays without a SIM, will be cleared in the next 10 days. Those with a SIM will be cleared in the next four to six weeks. Tuli went on to share that Datawind received roughly 40 lakh orders for its Ubislate tablet PC, with similar specifications to the first version of Aakash tablet. “Total number of paid customer was around 1 to 1.5 per cent [of the total],” Tuli added.
Datawind to clear all backlog soon
The initial version of the tablet had a 366MHz processor, 256 MB RAM and 2GB flash memory. It has Wi-Fi based Internet connectivity. The new version of their commercial tablet - Ubislate is powered by a 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB flash memory, and users have the option of upgrading to this new product by paying Rs 500 extra. The new model of Aakash runs the Google operating system Android 4.0 and has a 7-inch display. “It is only for those who have ordered in advance. For those who don’t want to shift to other we are supplying them the same product. People who don’t want to wait, we are refunding their money,” Tuli said.
The Datawind CEO further added that the company will begin the production of SIM-based tablets within two weeks. He added that the company is producing and shipping around 2,500 to 3,000 tablets PCs on a daily basis, while also receiving additional orders every day, thereby adding to the backlog. Interestingly, Tuli shared that the company was enhancing production to 10,000 units every day.
“Right now we are doing 2,500-3,000(units) a day. We are targeting that, by end of the year, around 10,000 (units) on a daily basis. Then we will keep enhancing expanding,” Tuli said.
Just days after the launch of the upgraded version of the Aakash tablet, Aakash 2, the humble tablet is set to go beyond classrooms. The Business Standard now reported recently that the Canadian manufacturer of India’s low-cost computing dream is receiving queries from other government agencies, pertaining to the supply of the Aakash 2 tablet. This is in addition to the order for supplying 100,000 tablets to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) that the company received earlier. Datawind chief executive Suneet Singh Tuli was quoted as saying, “There is a lot of interest from the rural development department and others for using these.”
Datawind too is going to state governments in a bid to use the Aakash 2 tablet to initiate several programmes. Tuli was further quoted as saying, “We got in touch with the ministry of commerce and explained to them how giving out point of sales terminals in the form of Aakash-2 to shop owners in rural India can improve efficiency in the system. We are also in talks with the ministry of rural development on how the new tablet can help the ministry in the caste survey process.”
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