Aakash Tablet - Made In India Or China?
Aakash tablet - the cheapest tablet was showcased as a product of Indian innovation done jointly by IIT Bombay and Datawind - the UK based company that's responsible for the manufacturing of the much hyped tablet. However, if the social media is to be believed, the Aakash tablet is actually a cheap tablet manufactured in China and shipped with a few applications (apps) installed by the folks at IIT Bombay.
Some of the recently leaked documents show that Datawind has obtained A13 model designed by AllWinner Tech of China. The tablet cost was estimated to be about Rs. 2300 and were shipped to India on behalf of Datawind by Kalong Technology Co. Ltd, Dasen International Electronics Co Ltd and Kalong Technology Co Ltd. The documents also reveal that IIT Bombay had issued a certificate on October 29 for the import of about 20k of these tablets and even requested an import duty waiver.
Datawind is learned to have 're-branded' these tablets as 'Aakash 2' at a price Rs. 2263 for each piece. It's also being learned that VNC system - the Indian company based out of Hyderabad was initially supposed to assemble these tablets in India; but the company has sued / threatened to sue Datawind in October for Datawind's inability to pay their dues. VNC system confirmed that they stopped production in November.
Based on Report By: Akash 2 Tablet: Was 'Indian innovation' Aakash 2 tablet made in China? - The Economic Times
If this is true, it's shocking!
We've had numerous discussions on CrazyEngineers about why India isn't able to catch up with the innovation in technology and engineering and why, despite producing thousands of engineers and post-graduate degree holders every year, have always failed to come up with a 'Twitter', 'Google' or 'Facebook' from India. Aakash was widely thought to be an 'Indian Innovation', but it turns out that it was just, plain, cheap import from China that's being sold in India with an Indian brand-stamp on it.
Most of the lading mobile companies in India that manufacture dual-sim budget smartphones in India are doing the same. While the companies have 'Indian' names - all they do is import the cheap phones from China (the cost of manufacturing is really really low there!) and then rebrand them and float them in Indian markets as 'Indian Phones'.
Aakash had raised people's hope and for the first time, they were seeing something innovative coming from the engineering Mecca of India - the Indian Institutes of Technology. But that doesn't seem to be the case.
I'm not sure whether we should really be 'serious' about Aakash and care about the origins of the tablet. But this news will surely make people lose their belief in India's innovation abilities. It's indeed very sad that the country, that was once a leader in innovation and technology in all over the world is unable to design and fabricate a simple tablet in India.
What's your opinion on this?
Some of the recently leaked documents show that Datawind has obtained A13 model designed by AllWinner Tech of China. The tablet cost was estimated to be about Rs. 2300 and were shipped to India on behalf of Datawind by Kalong Technology Co. Ltd, Dasen International Electronics Co Ltd and Kalong Technology Co Ltd. The documents also reveal that IIT Bombay had issued a certificate on October 29 for the import of about 20k of these tablets and even requested an import duty waiver.
Datawind is learned to have 're-branded' these tablets as 'Aakash 2' at a price Rs. 2263 for each piece. It's also being learned that VNC system - the Indian company based out of Hyderabad was initially supposed to assemble these tablets in India; but the company has sued / threatened to sue Datawind in October for Datawind's inability to pay their dues. VNC system confirmed that they stopped production in November.
Based on Report By: Akash 2 Tablet: Was 'Indian innovation' Aakash 2 tablet made in China? - The Economic Times
If this is true, it's shocking!
We've had numerous discussions on CrazyEngineers about why India isn't able to catch up with the innovation in technology and engineering and why, despite producing thousands of engineers and post-graduate degree holders every year, have always failed to come up with a 'Twitter', 'Google' or 'Facebook' from India. Aakash was widely thought to be an 'Indian Innovation', but it turns out that it was just, plain, cheap import from China that's being sold in India with an Indian brand-stamp on it.
Most of the lading mobile companies in India that manufacture dual-sim budget smartphones in India are doing the same. While the companies have 'Indian' names - all they do is import the cheap phones from China (the cost of manufacturing is really really low there!) and then rebrand them and float them in Indian markets as 'Indian Phones'.
Aakash had raised people's hope and for the first time, they were seeing something innovative coming from the engineering Mecca of India - the Indian Institutes of Technology. But that doesn't seem to be the case.
I'm not sure whether we should really be 'serious' about Aakash and care about the origins of the tablet. But this news will surely make people lose their belief in India's innovation abilities. It's indeed very sad that the country, that was once a leader in innovation and technology in all over the world is unable to design and fabricate a simple tablet in India.
What's your opinion on this?
Replies
-
Kaustubh KatdareAn update on this news: Datawind has denied that the Aakash II tablet is made in China. The CEO of the company, Suneet Singh Tuli has said that for the expediency, the motherboards and kits have been manufactured in China.
I'm bit curious to know what exactly has been the contribution of the IITs in making the Aakash tablet. The motherboards - one of the most vital part of the tablet has been made in China and I remember reading somewhere that the display screens have been made in Canada. Anyone familiar with the matter - please tell us what's up with the tablets. I'd expect CEans from IIT to tell us more about this a bit in more detail. -
GurjapIf it's any consolation, it's not as if the chinese designed those motherboards themselves. Those things are all designed in usa or eu by some highly placed design engineers that are almost invariably the results of western higher education. I don't even understand why you expect some dude who is an expert in test taking to start developing advanced microelectronic systems.
-
Anand TamariyaI don't understand this - why the hue and cry? "Made in" doesn't translate to "Manufactured in" for a long time now. Think HP, Dell, Apple etc.
-
Kaustubh KatdareApple says-
- Designed in California
- Assembled in China
-
GurjapAssembled in china? Meaning manufactured and assembled in china, I imagine.
-
Anand Tamariya
Designed in California
It would be interesting to find out what percentage of total design was done in California - as it is for Akash. Designing the outer cover is "design" as much!! Interestingly, Apple has a patent on that square design with circular button - the reason they are suing Samsung!!
You are reading an archived discussion.
Related Posts
Hi Guys,
I planned to purchase 50 Inches Plasma tv from Panasonic with 3D... it is less in price when compare to LED with the same features.
I am going...
using the operation pop and push set i to the second element from the top of the stack, leaving the stack to without its top two element
supercharging and turbocharging always increase the efficiency of an engine...can any one please explain me why only few cars are using this technology..(mostly small cars wont use)
hi i am new to ce and i am new to engg. too i have just started my engg in cse and iam exited about it
😁 😉
APU, that might be exotic term for some. APU also known as Accelerated Processing Unit is Processor fusion of CPU (Central Processing Unit) & GPU (Graphical Processing Unit).
AMD has...