Hurry! Aakash prices may go up

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Meet Vijendra K Gupta, Datawind VP who is spearheading the company’s Aakash debut. As an industry veteran, he has served Reliance Communications, Bharti Airtel and VSNL, besides other accomplishments.

With 1.5 million pre-orders and still counting, Gupta has a reason to smile.
As the Datawind is all set to roll out upgraded version, Gupta in an interaction with Muntazir Abbas and Sandhya Melhotra shares an insight.

Also read: Why Aakash is a showpiece at CES in Las Vegas

How many preorders do you have for Aakash 2 or UbiSlate 7 and will they be sold on e-Bay and Flipkart?

Gupta: We have 1.5 million preorders. We are giving priority to our customers so as to courier them directly. We have been approached by such Web shopping portals and we are in talks with them.

We have given an option to customers if they would like to upgrade, since Aakash 1 is only a Wi-Fi device. UbiSlate will be a better version with better processor. We have also put it on our Website, mentioning the comparison and price.

We are gearing up to launch Aakash 2 either by the end of February or by the beginning of March. We will soon close booking for March. We are also ensuring that the company would have enough devices ready, when we launch.

What is the key challenge before you?
Gupta:To meet customers’ expectations and deliver product well in time is a challenge. We have to enhance our production capabilities. We are doing our best. The company is also in talks with OEMs who can manufacture it as per our expectations. Hopefully, by the month end, we’ll have some plants ready.

What is the key pain point in commercial production?
Gupta: The problem lies in sourcing components from various countries, especially the modems. Since there is a huge demand, every manufacturer thinks twice before giving timeline to us. Components supply is an issue for which we had never expected such a situation. In an overall scenario, it’s not only components availability but their cost too is a cause of concern.

The production will immediately start when all components get in place, and lead time would be less.

So, by when do you plan production and will you scale up manufacturing?
Gupta: If we get more orders, we’ll keep scaling our manufacturing capabilities and add more facilities.

Are you accepting bulk orders from colleges and schools? What is the distribution strategy?

Gupta: We are taking orders from institutions separately.

The Indian arm of the DataWind-- the DataWind Innovation-- will distribute Aakash 2 as a national distributor. We are about to close our distributors and have already frozen some.

We are also in the process of finalizing regional partners, having IT and telecom background. We’ll also go for a traditional channel but it’ll be premature to say as of now.

As you move ahead, how are you gearing to offer service support to customers?
Gupta: For technical support, we have already tied up with service providers. Just wait till the commercial launch.

What is your roadmap?
Gupta: Going forward with a couple of products, our goal is to meet customers’ expectations with uniquely priced devices. We are doing something which others wouldn’t have done till now.

With X0.3.0 tablet launch, do you feel that you have now entered into competition arena?
Gupta: Every device has its own segment. There is a buyer for every product. At whatever price point they are launching today, perhaps tomorrow they won’t afford it.

After launching Aakash, our so called competitors have recognized that these things could be done. Our effort is to adhere to optimum quality and keep cost in such a fashion that should be affordable to lower middle class.
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Are you getting subsidy or rebates from the government for Aakash 2 also?

Gupta:Government has not exempted VAT and other taxes for commercial launch. Government will ultimately be benefitted with Aakash 2.

What is the level of response you are getting globally?

Gupta: We have received some orders from other nations. We can’t elaborate on that, but we are getting demands from various south Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Malaysia. They were looking for Aakash 1, but as they got aware of higher version, they are renewing their demands.

You started from Aakash, a fairly low-cost tablet. Now you are coming up with Aakash 2. Why is it so?

Gupta: We have to start from somewhere and innovate something. Aakash was developed the way it should be. Going forward, we provided it with value addition. With commercial version, we are going to the masses now.

People have their own expectations. At this price, we can’t give premium versions that are available in market. People have a lot of hope with this device and we endeavor to meet their expectations.

Can we expect a price hike in future?

Cost is a major concern today. Keeping it as a low-cost device is a win-win situation for both-- company and customer.

However, rupee depreciation is another big challenge. But as of now we are not thinking of price hike. We have already communicated to people and committed a price; therefore we can’t increase at this point.

But going forward, for future booking, we may review it. It depends on how rupee fares against dollar. If it further depreciates, we may review. It’s premature to comment on it.