New Aakash Tablet Version 2.0

By February 2012, an improved and more competent Aakash-2, world’s most affordable tablet PC, is expected to be launched at the same price as its previous version. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Rajasthan has confirmed the improvements made in Aakash-1, which was launched on October 5. HRD minister Kapil Sibal said that new version of Aakash will be launched during January-February, 2012.

Aakash has got an ample response internationally, when exhibited at a recent United Nations conference in Paris. Aakash has shown so much of interest among several international organizations and world leaders. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said. “Several prime ministers and ministers have evinced interest in Aakash who want it for their country in thousands,” he told media correspondents without elaborating.

The Aakash-2, based on response from more than 500 users of Aakash-1 in IITs and many other institutions, will include microprocessor of 800MHz instead of 366MHz processor. It will improve the speed of the tablet and will enable downloading videos from internet.

The RAM (Random Access Memory) of the Aakash-2 will be enhanced to 1GB from 256 MB in Aakash-1 that restricted multi-tasking.

A senior professor at IIT Rajasthan, who is leading the Aakash team, said that changes would increase the performance of the tablet and would be more competent to the existing tablet PCs in the market.

In order to make Aakash-2 smarter, the IIT Rajasthan has decided to include a built-in camera to it, to ensure video chatting facility to its users. It also will include a seven-inch touch screen for a better look.

This version is a result of feedback from IIT students, who tested Aakash-1, and claimed some of the problems of the current version, which include frequent hanging, overheating within 30 minutes, not supporting all formats, poor sound quality, and lack of ability to install software available online.

Though the Aakash-2 will be available by February 2012, to meet the government’s target of supplying it to 2 million students is still a challenge.

“We have to evolve an eco-system of several vendors and its testing by IITs and other institutes to provide an Aakash to each child by 2017 (end of 12th plan),” a senior HRD ministry official said.

As in case of Aakash-1, where companies like London based DataWind, India based Quad came together, the government believes that Aakash-2 will make a bigger collaboration

As the HRD Minister Sibal said that several international organizations and world ministers have shown interest to purchase Aakash for the children world-wide, this collaboration will be very essential. The minister, who has been marketing Aakash since its launch, also said. “There is a lot of global buzz about Aakash and we have to meet the global expectation”.