People
Reach For The Sky: The Man Who Brought The Aakash to India
by JOHN TERAUDS
Two Sikh-Canadians are behind the world’s cheapest tablet computer.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011, saw the launching of the device, developed by DataWind, a Montreal firm founded by brothers Raja and Suneet Singh Tuli.
DataWind CEO Suneet Singh expects to sell 1 million tablets per month once the Android-powered device goes on sale to the general public later this year.
The first run of 100,000 Aakash tablets (the word literally means “sky” in Punjabi and other subcontinental languages) has been purchased by the Indian government for $48 each. They will be resold to university students for $25.
Suneet Singh explained that the government would like to buy 8 to 10 million units from four or five suppliers.
“We bid so aggressively that the other bidders weren’t able to match our price,” he says. The bidding is being reopened for the next batch of orders.
India’s National Mission on Education through Information & Communication Technology has spent five years pushing for an inexpensive mobile device for mass use.
The Aakash runs the Android 2.2 operating system, features a 7-inch display with 800-by-480 pixel resolution, two USB ports and a claimed battery life of 3 hours. It also comes with 256 megabytes of RAM, 2 gigabytes of flash storage and a 366 MHz processor made by Connexant.
This is enough to perform standard tasks, such as streaming HD video, reading Ebooks and running office-suite applications.
Web access is via DataWind’s proprietary UbiSurfer browser.
The commercial version of the tablet is called UbiSlate. Suneet Singh would like to see it on the streets by December, “But it all depends if we can make enough of them,” he said.
The UbiSlate will come with a modem to allow it to be used as a phone, and should sell for about $65, according to Suneet.
Units destined for the United Kingdom and the United States will come with unlimited Internet access. Suneet says his target price is $189 (U.S.), including a two-year data bundle.
He explains that DataWind designed and sourced its own components wherever possible, lowering costs.
“This is not a one-time opportunity,” he says. “There are 2½ to 3 million students entering university every year, as well as 80 million students in Grades 9 to 12, and the government is very serious about making mobile products available to this age group.”
“I could tell you a romantic story about two [Sikh] brothers who arrive in Montreal to get a great Canadian education, become citizens, and then go back to India to bring Internet to the masses,” says Suneet Singh.
“But the reality is, this is all about profit – my investors and board wouldn’t want it any other way.”
BIO
Suneet Singh Tuli is the CEO of Datawind Ltd., and a serial entrepreneur. He graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering, but soon forayed into the electronics business in 1990 as a founder of company that manufactured large format fax, scanning and plotting equipment. In the last 21 years, he’s successfully taken two companies public on the Nasdaq stock market, launched 17 new products and managed operations globally.
"All segments of society," Suneet says, "understand that education is key to improving their living standards. The internet holds the key to eliminating illiteracy, and I dream of a world where web access is as prevalent as mobile phones. I want to help achieve that goal by driving costs as low as possible. Let’s target bringing the next billion consumers on the internet.”
Suneet Singh feels the best life-book is The Guru Granth Sahib. In his words, ”the more you read it, the more you learn. Each time you read it, you grow more”.
DataWind has developed a breakthrough internet delivery platform, covered by 18 U.S. patents and several additional internal patents. This unique technology uses a client and server architecture to compress and accelerate the delivery of web pages. The result is that the average size of the web page is reduced by a factor of over thirty times.
"I learn from the life examples of Guru Gobind Singh, where he showed that against all obstacles, how to gain the strength to persevere. My father, Sardar.Lakhbir Singh has been an embodiment of hard work, passion and perseverance."
[Courtesy: The Toronto Star and Exhibit Mag. Edited for sikhchic.com]
October 8, 2011
Conversation about this article
1: Pritam Singh (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), October 08, 2011, 9:43 AM.
A little known fact: Suneet Singh and Raja Singh have wowed the world over and over again in the last two decades with incredibly useful innovations in technology. The biggest, the smallest, the fastest ... and now, the cheapest! What a duo!
2: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), October 08, 2011, 10:31 AM.
More fantastic 'unsung' Sikhs appearing in the media.
3: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), October 08, 2011, 12:04 PM.
There was no whiff in the original announcements about the revolutionary inventors of Aakash and credit was misappropriated by IIT for this tablet. The two brothers, Raja and Suneet, look like the new 'Apple'. Or, 'Mango', to be exact. Wait and see this, is not the last you'll hear of them. May Waheguru keeps His hand on their heads, and keep their feet firmly on the ground. This will be another tsunami of invention that is going to take the world by storm. S. Lakhbir Singh ji, your 'sapputars' have done us all proud.
4: Harinder (Uttar Pradesh, India), October 08, 2011, 1:44 PM.
Proud of you all. If you are taking orders for further inventios, my list would look like this: 1) Time Machine; 2) Anti-gravity vehicle. You should open up a new company and call it "DREAM MERCHANTS"! Balley balley!
5: Gurjender Singh (Maryland, U.S.A.), October 08, 2011, 2:55 PM.
Congratulation to CEO Suneet Singh for Aakash. I saw his interview with the reporter on NDTV. Unfortunately none of the main newspapers in the U.S. or India directly mentioned his name or picture. They only show a desi politician hogging the limelight.
6: Arvinder Singh Kang (Oxford, Mississippi, U.S.A.), October 09, 2011, 9:54 PM.
Congratulations, Suneet Singh, on your amazing feat. We often talk among ourselves how we need more of the likes of you - entrepreneurial Sikhs, the warriors of the digital age.
7: Mandeep (Alberta, Canada), October 11, 2011, 2:55 PM.
Wishing Suneet Singh and his company tons of success ... great work!