It looks like I spoke too soon when I reported that the spat between Datawind, the UK-based manufacturer of the much-heralded '$35' Aakash tablet and the Indian government had been resolved (see Datawind and India kiss and make up over Aakash). According to media reports, Datawind is now blaming IIT Rajasthan, the government agency overlooking the project, for the fiasco, which has seen only a few hundred of the devices actually in the hands of students.
Clearly not at all put off by all of this, HCL Infosystems, the hardware manufacturer/reseller sibling of offshore services player, HCL Technologies, has stepped into the fray, saying it will bid to manufacture Aakash 2 when it sees the tender specs – but only if the pricing is “feasible”. They had originally bid to manufacture Aakash 1 until they realised they couldn’t hit the $35 price point. Datawind had put a manufacturing cost of just under $50 for Aakash 1. Meanwhile, HCL Infosystems has just launched its own range of low-cost tablets for the student market, starting at Rs 7,999 (c.$155/£100).
As we noted earlier this year (see Tablets ‘an indulgence’ in India), tablets have failed to take off in the Indian market, mainly because of price. Acer says it has only been selling some 2,000-2,500 a quarter – an insignificant fraction of the 3m units it sold worldwide last year.
So I guess Indian students will have wait somewhat longer to play Angry Birds on a shiny new toy.