4.12.12

PrithV



Mumbai based Wishtel has launched PrithV , the cheapest version of the Linux-based tablet being priced at $50 (retail price: Rs 3,300). Targeted at the education segment, the device is expected to give Datawind's Aakash-2 tough competition, with the commercial version of both devices retailing at same price points.
Wishtel chief executive officer Milind Shah said that the tablet was designed and manufactured in India to prove a point. “We wanted to show that India can manufacture a $50 product,“ he said. The basic version of the tablet will retail at Rs 3,300 (including taxes). Better configurations will be priced at Rs 5,000.
The tablet has a seven inch LCD screen and an 800 mhz processor. It comes with support for 85 languages, including 23 Indian, and offers an open-source platform that can access educational content for pre-primary,  tertiary and higher education levels. Wishtel plans to make the educational platform available on netbooks and tablets. Its closest competitor is Datawind that has become famous as maker of Aakash, the world’s cheapest tablet, chosen by the government as part of its thrust on using ICT to enhance the quality of education delivered.
Made available to the government at Rs 2,263.
Alternately toasted and roasted, Datawind has been honoured at fora like the UN where it was showcased as a symbol of India’s innovation, while doubts have been cast on its much-touted made-in India tag. Reports claimed key components of the tablet come from China. Shah said PrithV tablets would be manufactured at its Mhape factory in Navi Mumbai. He expressed confident of the factory rolling out 100,000 PrithV tablets a month that Wishtel hopes to sell.
The tablet has been developed in association with “Gnowledge Lab” of the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education.

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