India Plans $35 Android Tablet Targeted For Educational Purpose

As you may have heard the cheapest vehicle from India, now seems that the country is putting much effort in developing a highly affordable tablet PC targeted for its educational purpose. Dubbed as Sakshat, it is estimated to be priced around $35 as the cheapest tablet PC in the industry.

During a recent press conference, Kapil Sibal, India Human Resource Development Minister has unveiled preview with its earlier prototype available for showcase. While the hardware specifications requirement is still pending finalization, but it is disclosed that the cost will include the main system such as processor, 2GB of RAM, WiFi, touchscreen, USB ports and all those necessary features with target thermal requirement of around 2W. In order to keep the cost down, the device will be preloaded with Android Operating System which is increasingly gaining its popularity in handheld and mobile segments.

By looking at its cost and thermal envelope, the processor is most probably based on ARM architecture and the new program is much cheaper as compared to previous OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) educational based XO-1 netbook targeted at $100. With its official release date in 2011, the government hopes to further reduce the price to $10-20 with subsidize and mass volume production by that time.