Just when we thought tablets couldn’t get any cheaper than the $99 HP TouchPad, it looks like we’re proven wrong. Today, the Indian government has started offering slightly subsidized Android tablets for $35 apiece. Designed to bring students and the general public up to date with technology, especially the internet, the Aakash tablet (which means Sky) took over four years to develop. The creators of the tablet, DataWind and IIT Rajasthan, must have taken their time scouting out the best ways to cut costs because the tablets will be sold to students at $35. Yes, you read that right.
The government purchased the tablets at $50 apiece and will be selling them to students subsidized. To the general public, the tablets will be marked up to $70 – which is still pretty cheap. The Aakash tablet will feature a 366MHz + HD video co-processor, 256MB of RAM, and up to 32GB of internal storage, a 7″ resistive (800 x 480) display and it runs on Android 2.2 Froyo.
While it’s not a great tablet in terms of specs, I assume it would be enough for non-taxing tasks such as web browsing (of lightweight websites) and document editing. The Aakash tablet isn’t likely to be shipping out of India, but it does make on wonder whether other companies will consider releasing such cheap tablets in the future.