Bangalore: In spite of several attempts by the Indian Ministry to improve the condition of the low cost tablets in the Indian market, the rock of misery has hardly moved an inch. Backed by the government, apparently to progress the current use of technology in the field of education and commerce, companies’ effort to provide the country with cost effective hand held devices has all gone is vain.

Aakash is not the first set out by the Indian government to endorse an economical Tablet. Encore Software Ltd. had launched Mobilis a 7.4 inch LCD touch screen device with Linux OS, in 2005 that soon faded off of the Indian buyer’s memory. In 2002, a non profit organization formed by a group of Indian scientists and engineers along with Encore had launched Simputer, a reasonably basic multi-lingual computer that did very badly in the market. Devised to revolutionize the low cost tablet market, Simputer sold only 4,000 out of an anticipated 50,000 pieces which were bought mostly by various state governments, to be supplied in educational institutions and departments of land records.

Following the launch of Aakash Tablet in 2011, the market did not record any considerable change in the sales of low cost tablets. Even though there is a high demand of mobiles and Smartphones, the country sold only 250,000 tablets in 2011 of which 70% are the expensive main stream tablets by Apple, Samsung and Blackberry beating their $45 Indian counterpart by a heavy margin.   

“Aakash surely created the buzz, but the market for tablets in the country is still not there. Tablets are a very nascent market in India. But many vendors have realized that they have to offer value, and budget tablets can’t offer that value even for schools and colleges,” said G. Rajeev, senior market analyst at IDC Centre for Consultancy and Research.

Next: Why are these economical tablets failing in India?