And you thought the $199 Kindle Fire was cheap? The Indian government last week promised a rumoured $35 tablet is due to be unveiled this week.
Pluggd.in: “The Indian government will subsidise the cost by 50 percent, so a student would have to pay only Rs. 1,100/ for the device.”
India could be ready for a tablet explosion of the same kind happening elsewhere.
According to a C21 report from the Mipcom TV industry conference: “(FremantleMedia’s Asia MD Paul O’Hanlon) said an unnamed company was developing an entertainment-focused subscription-based tablet for the Indian market, which provided ‘a great opportunity for FremantleMedia’.”
It’s unclear whether the two reports refer to the same or different devices, but it’s more likely the $35 device may be aimed at schools and colleges, whose bulk purchasing power may reduce the effective price of what is already mooted to be a low-spec unit.
Indian networks currently run FremantleMedia’s local X Factor and Got Talent shows on TV, but O’Hanlon says “an opportunity had developed to exploit the country’s burgeoning middle class through mobile and tablet devices”, C21 reports: “A lot of them are very wealthy and have increasingly global tastes. When they’re going to work, they’ve got tablets and mobiles.”
The $35 tablet has been reported since mid-2010.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ok4z9Xpapzc%3Fversion%3D3%26hl%3Den_US