Just because there’s expensive tablets like the Apple iPad available in America, doesn’t mean the cheap version can be useful in other countries. A new innovative idea is helping people in underprivileged countries get a taste of the digital world.

While the Amazon Kindle Fire is changing the landscape of the tablet market in the United States, the super affordable $45 Aakash Android slate is taking India by storm. A pilot program originally distributed 1,000,000 of the tablet to Indian students, but it was subsequently released to the public. The tablet proved to be so popular that its UK-based manufacturer, Datawind, received 1.4 million pre-orders in merely two weeks.

While pre-orders don’t always translate to sales, an average reservation rate of 100,000 per day is still impressive, considering the tablet market in India only sold 250,000 to 300,000 units in 2011. The first 30,000 Aakash tablets were snapped up quickly after going on sale, which is perfectly understandable given their price tag — and students even get a $10 discount. In order to keep up with the enormous demand, Datawind will build three more factories to ramp up production to 70,000 to 75,000 units a day by April.

The 7″ Aakash Android tablet doesn’t offer much in terms of features. Nevertheless, it fulfills its purpose, which is to provide Indian youths with an affordable wifi-capable device to help them with their studies. Datawind will also start selling a $55 upgraded version of the tablet in mid-January that comes with 2G connection and a slightly better processor. Source: TheNextWeb

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