The conditions of the deal/s may have changed since the initial publishing of this post.
Students in India have been using a 7 inch tablet to help them with their school work. The Ubislate Android tablet has also been offered in other countries as the "Aakash" and is manufactured by Canadian firm DataWind at a cost of $50 and sold for $60. Subsidized by the government, the device has caught on for use by India's students at a very attractive price of $35. The word is that device manufacturer Wilco is seeking a license from DataWind to build the low cost tablet for consumption in the States. It just so happens that this is coming from Wilco VP and FCC Diversity Committee member Brigitte Daniel, which gives it a higher level of speculation than just rumor.
Students in India pay $35 for the Aakash tablet
Daniel's plan is to have the low priced tablet made available to Philadelphia schools in the beginning, with wider distribution eventually to "under-served communities" in the area. If W.C. Fields once said that his epitaph would read, "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia," perhaps this tablet is the reason why.
The unit certainly won't win any benchmark test battles with its low-end specs. The Aakash is powered by a single-core 366MHz ARM based processor with 256MB of RAM aboard. 2GB of native storage comes with the model and that can be expanded by as much as 32GB using the microSD slotWi-Fi. Installed on the tablet is the wrinkly Froyo Android 2.2 OS. The tablet is said to have poor sound quality and freezes up at times. Instead of access to Google Play, it offers apps from GetJar. Depending on the amount that local school districts are willing to offer for a subsidy, the device could carry a price tag that just about every student could afford.
Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.
Recommended Stories
Loading Comments...
COMMENT
All comments need to comply with our
Community Guidelines
Phonearena comments rules
A discussion is a place, where people can voice their opinion, no matter if it
is positive, neutral or negative. However, when posting, one must stay true to the topic, and not just share some
random thoughts, which are not directly related to the matter.
Things that are NOT allowed:
Off-topic talk - you must stick to the subject of discussion
Offensive, hate speech - if you want to say something, say it politely
Spam/Advertisements - these posts are deleted
Multiple accounts - one person can have only one account
Impersonations and offensive nicknames - these accounts get banned
Moderation is done by humans. We try to be as objective as possible and moderate with zero bias. If you think a
post should be moderated - please, report it.
Have a question about the rules or why you have been moderated/limited/banned? Please,
contact us.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: