28 November 2012, 07:11 PM IST
Another year and another Aakash story.
But unlike how it unfolded last year, the story is rosier this year. In the last few days some of the sheen has been lost due to the 'made in China' controversy but, according to stories, Aakash 2 looks to be a lot more promising tablet than its predecessor, Aakash.
I am not convinced. And I say this not because Datawind bought some no-name cheap Chinese tablet from Shenzhen for $42.5 and sold it to the public as a product developed and manufactured in India. This is an issue too. But it is more of a breach of trust.
Earlier, I wrote about the problem with the way the original Aakash was conceived and executed. Same problems exist with Aakash 2. The whole project is basically useless and conceived with no proper goal in mind. There is no vision in it. It is not viable.
But what about Forbes and TechCrunch, etc, which are going gaga over Aakash 2?
I have some ideas. But I think a tweet from Vivek Wadhwa, an academic (and apparently a friend of Datawind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli) in the US, explains it better.
Two days ago, after the Indian media started asking Datawind questions on their 'made in India' claim, Wadhwa said, "This is why I had US media review Aakash 2 first. Some in Indian media have inferiority complex, don't understand tech."
So, there you are. It seems Aakash 2 is getting rave reviews because people writing those reviews are those who "understand" technology. In contrast, the reviews of Aakash were done by dumb Indian journalists! And who is Wadhwa, and how does he come into the picture? Well, he himself explained it in an article for Washington Post.
"I was all but certain that, after reading Indian newspapers and extensive criticism from Indians on Twitter that, no matter how good this device was, Indian politics would triumph and the device would die a fast death. Based on my previous experience, I was convinced that no Indian reviewer would have the courage to say anything nice, and the negative publicity would build on itself... In light of this, I asked Tuli to ship me a handful of Aakash 2 units—hot off the manufacturing line—to New York, where I was speaking at an education conference. I showed it to attendees whose responses were overwhelmingly positive. I also gave the tablet to tech journalists I knew, all of whom worked for publications to which I have previously contributed pieces."
So, basically, Wadhwa pulled a few strings, selectively seeded the tablet with tech journalists whom he "knew". It's a standard PR trick. Is it any wonder that the journalists sang paeans to Aakash 2?
There is another angle here. When it comes to the press in the west, selling the feel-good stories like "affordable tablet that is going to revolutionize education in a makeshift school in a dirty village" are pretty easy. It works in a manner similar to stories on "yogis who can stand on nails and can attain nirvana". It is exotic. People love reading and writing about stuff that helps the poor.
The problem that I see with the coverage that the western media has given to Aakash 2 so far is that the people writing on TechCrunch and Forbes are neither familiar with the tablet market in India nor do they know the grim realities that exist in Indian schools and colleges. They probably just regurgitated what Wadhwa and Datawind told them. Access to a tablet is hardly the biggest problems many of schools in India face. There are bigger issues. Like access to drinking water for school kids. Or, maybe, a room where they can study while it is raining outside.
Even if we assume that access to the tablet is paramount and a pressing problem that needs to be solved, Aakash 2 doesn't do it. The people who reviewed the tablet at TechCrunch or Forbes did it in their office. They did not use it in places where there is no Wi-Fi. They did not give it to a 10 year-old kid who had not used a computer ever, and seen his reaction. They found some faults with the tablet but claimed that its low price more than make up for them. They did not know that already, in India, there are several tablets selling for around $80 to $90, which are better than UbiSlate 7Ci, the commercial version of Aakash 2. They did not know that even these better tablets are virtually useless. They had no idea how people in India can turn even well-meaning projects topsy-turvy and make truckloads of money, all in the name of helping the poor.
Primarily, Indian government has to share much of the blame for the Aakash mess. But that doesn't mean Datawind is not part of the mess. The fact that Aakash 2 is just a Chinese rebranded tablet doesn't inspire much confidence in a firm that hailed Aakash as a national achievement by telling people that it is developed and manufactured in India.
Then, there are people who had ordered UbiSlate, the commercial version of Aakash last year, and paid money by demand draft but are yet to get their tablets! One of them is Manoj Shirawala from Surat. He told me in October that he had not received UbiSlate even months after he had paid up Rs 2,999. Shirawala repeatedly wrote mails to Datawind but in vain. The situation is same with D K Mahant, a lawyer in Delhi, as well as many others who have posted at the UbiSlate page on Facebook, seeking an answer.
I wrote to Datawind about the incomplete orders. "The key reason for the delay is the overwhelming demand. We have completed deliveries for almost 80% of the customers that have pre-paid, and expect to complete the rest in the next few weeks," Tuli said in an email.
Nearly a month after I got the mail from Tuli, Mahant is yet to get the UbiSlate 7+ that he had booked months ago.
Given this background, the Chinese connection, and the fact that Datawind continues to hide the tablet from the Indian media, don't blame me for being sceptical about the Aakash 2 story.
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