In a bid to sweeten the deal for its products, tablet personal computer maker Datawind said that it has partnered telecom companies to bundle free Internet services for a year on purchase of its devices from next month onwards.
The company, known for its Aakash tablets, said it will offer its UbiSlate series of models including 7Cx, 7C Plus, 7CZ and 3G7 priced between Rs 3,999 and Rs 4,999 with the free Internet access.
“The devices will be bundled with a SIM and we plan to offer the free Internet access for lifetime also, but at a later stage, as we don’t want to take that risk right now. We will see how this first offer develops,” Suneet Singh Tuli, Chief Executive Officer, Datawind, told
Without disclosing the names of the telecom partners, Tuli said the company has tied up with two telecom service providers for the Internet services and talks are on for partnering other service providers. While the Internet service will be free for buyers of Datawind tablets, the telecom companies will be paid off by the tablet maker. It’s not clear how Datawind will make money out of this deal though Tuli said that he is working on generating revenues from advertisements and services offered on top of the tablet.
“Other tablet vendors are giving free Internet service for 3-4 months along with devices that cost around Rs 25,000. We are offering a Rs 4,000 device with 12 months free Internet access. That makes it compelling,” he said.
“Calculating in real terms, our devices will be less costly than that of the Internet usage rate by the end of a year,” Tuli said.
According to CyberMedia Research’s India Quarterly Tablet PC Market Review, 11.50 lakh tablets were sold in the country in the April-June quarter, as compared with 5.54 lakh units in the corresponding period last year. While Samsung was ranked number with 15.3 per cent, Datawind was at number two with 12.3 per cent.
Rural areas
The company will be focussing in rural areas in order to increase its market share. “We ship around 2,500-3,000 devices a day now and in the first quarter of the year, we were the largest supplier of tablets in India. We sold a million units in the last one year (15 months) plus one-lakh units (of Aakash) to the Government,” he said. Datawind’s initial tablet had hit rough weather after it was found wanting in terms of quality and features.
Tuli said Datawind will also participate in the bidding for the 22-lakh ‘Aakash-4’ project for which the Government is coming out with a tender (around Rs 330 crore) by mid-December.
Overseas markets
Going forward, Datawind is also exposing itself to newer markets such as the UK, the US and Canada. It is already selling to 13 countries including Mexico, Zambia, Tanzania, Uruguay, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
“We are aiming to add around two countries every month over the next few months,” Tuli added.