Datawind becoming India's leading tablet maker for Q1 2013

Despite all the setbacks and the media frenzy surrounding Aakash series tablets, it turns out that the Datawind is India's leading Tablet PC manufacturer. According to The Times of India was Datawind leader in the Indian market for the first quarter of 2013, supplemented with data from market research firm CyberMedia research.

Between January and March 2013 period, Datawind had a strong 15 percent of the Indian market and excludes Aakash series of tablets. It struck even homegrown rival Micromax, which tied the Apple with close to a 12 per cent market.

aakashDatawind CEO Suneet Tuli Singh (right) at the launch of Aakash 2 tablet in the United Nations. (Credit: DataWind)

In addition, shipped nearly 10,000 tablets daily, from different vendors, for January and March 2013 time period, resulting in an increase of 150 per cent growth compared to the same period last year. This translated into about 905,000 tablets that are sold in the period, compared with 1,097,902 in the previous quarter.

As far as the Datawind is, they seem to be in the good books of the Indian Government once again as plans are being finalized for the fourth iteration in Aakash series, known as the Aakash 4.

Earlier this year, Datawind was with delivery and engagement delivery problems with the Indian Government, and the entire project almost got scrapped. It was then, and this is now. The project's goal is to have a Aakash tablet within reach of every student in India is now a step closer.

The time it took from drawing up specifications and deliver the finished product to students has taken much longer than originally expected. Now has 100,000 Aakash 2 tablets--retailing for around US $ 20--delivered to students all over India by Datawind for Government as promised. Aakash 3 tablet is supposed to be released sometime this year. Previous reports have suggested that it would be in June or July, but nothing is confirmed yet, by either the Government or the Datawind itself.

It's time for Indian students to fully embrace technology in the classroom and use Aakash tablets given to them as utilities and tools, and perhaps in the process, some students will even venture further and create apps for Aakash series of tablets himself.

What many don't realize is that in fact the Datawind supports app development program for students. They are interested in students design and develop apps for Aakash tablets, which would then be sold on the Datawind's online app store. In addition, Datawind also has a similar revenue-sharing platform that Apple has with developers, and they're looking aggressively more developers to create apps.