Besides being bullish in India, it also plans to retail the product in other countries.
Unfazed by the slew of recent low-cost tablets launches, Datawind, better known as makers of Aakash tablet PC, plans to sell around five million devices to individual and corporate buyers this year in India. UK-based Datawind, a wireless manufacturing company started by Suneet and Raja Tuli, has already bagged orders from the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD) to supply the low-cost tablet PC. The company expects MHRD to buy around 10 million devices this year from various players.
Besides being bullish in India, the company also plans to retail the product in other countries. "We have firm expressions of interest from a number of countries like Egypt, Thailand, Panama, Sri Lanka, Brazil, amongst others", Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO, Datawind said. Confident that Datawind can sell five million Aakash tablets this year in India, Tulli added, "We do have some supply constraints now. To address that, we are planning to come up with three new assembly plants in Cochin, Noida and Hyderabad. We already have a plant in Hyderabad. With four plants, the output capacity should touch four lakh tablets a month." As of now, the Hyderabad plant can assemble about 3,000 units a day. The new plants would be operational by March this year.
Datawind started online sales late last year, where 30,000 units of the 'Aakash' version of the tablet were available for Rs 2,500 a piece. These were sold immediately, claimed the firm. The new version, to be made available from January-end 2012, with upgradations such as GPRS and longer battery life, was put for sale online. In 14 days, 14 lakh devices were pre-booked.
| COST COMPARISON Low-cost tabs (Sub Rs 10,000) | ||
| Vendor | Product | Starting price(Rs) |
| Datawind | Aakash | 2,500 |
| Classteacher Learning Systems | Classpad | 7,500 |
| Beetel | Magiq | 9,999 |
| HCL Infosystems | X1 | 10,490 |
| Lacs | Magnum | 4,500 |
| Wespro | Epad | 7,000 |
| Source:Industry | ||
According to the data by CyberMedia Research, 85,000 tablets were shipped during November 2010-March 2011. The first tablet computer was launched in India in November 2010. Since then, the market saw a slew of launches from MNC and Indian players. The launch of the newer devices at sub-Rs 10,000 category is expected to further increase demand. Industry experts expect the world of tablets to become the new battleground.
Homegrown players like New Delhi-based Classteacher Learning Systems, too, have come up with a similar product called "Classpad." The tablet, priced in the range of Rs 7,500-14,500, comes in three models: Classpad 7, Classpad 8 and Classpad 10. Tuli opines that such competition is good for the market. "Market opportunity is huge and there is a room for everyone," he said.
