India's cheapest tablet Aakash scores 1.4 million orders

Now, not everyone out there can get the fancy iPad 2 just because it costs $499. But no one can deny that technology and tablets in particular are a welcome addition to make our lives easier. India has tackled the task directly with its super affordable under $50 Aakash tablet, and the device seems to enjoy pretty good initial sales.

In the two weeks after its roll-out on December 14th, it has reportedly sold 1.4 million units. The Aakash only costs 2,500 Indian rupees or around $40. Now for that sum you can’t expect cutting edge hardware or software, but nonetheless the Indians seem to have managed to deliver a decent device.

The Aakash features a  7” touchscreen while under the hood there’s a 366 MHz ARM-based processor, 256 MB RAM, Wi-Fi. Additionally, the tablet comes with extendible memory via a micro-SD slot. On the downside, it’s often been reported to freeze every once in a while and has no access to the Android Market but only to the third-party GetJar store for apps. Well, for around $40, you’d probably be glad to make do with that, don’t you think?

source: AFP