You know your big company is put to shame when a product 20 times cheaper gets Android 4.0 before your tablet… The Indian Aakash, tablet, famously priced at $35 is bound to get a hardware upgrade, through a new version. The Aakash 2 will feature a 7 inch capacitive multitouch display and a faster single core CPU.
This model will rely on an 800 MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, according to Suneet Singh Tuly, CEO of Datawind. The device will ship with Android 2.3, but it will support the upgrade to Android 4.0 in 6 to 8 weeks after delivery. Meanwhile, devices such as the Motorola Xoom 2, that costs almost 20 times the Aakash is failing to give us a proper Android 4.0 upgrade…. how failed is that? Tuli also said that the product development is done and the delivers should start for the Aakash 2 in 2-3 weeks.
The tablet’s total price is $45, yet again a reasonable sum of money, but the India government will subsidize it to $35, said Tuli. The government will support the purchase of about 5 million units for the country’s fiscal year, that started on April 1st. For you to realize what the upgrade is, know that the original model had a 7 inch resistive screen, Android 2.2 and a 366 MHz CPU, so the new hardware is significantly better. Aakash 2 also brings 256 MB of RAM and 2 GB of flash storage and these are specs kept from the predecessor.
