You think a bargain-bin ICS tablet for around $75-$120 is a great deal? What about $20 for a tablet? That’s exactly what Datawind is doing exclusively for the Indian market.

The Datwind-made Aakash 2 has a 1GHz processor, 7-inch display, Wi-Fi, Android 4.0 ICS and isn’t that spectacular looking but you can’t complain for $20. How did they get down to such a cheap price? Government subsidizing. The Datawind tablets actually cost $40 to make, but the government is helping cover the cost and then selling the tablets on-the-cheap to students across India.

Having a program to give tablets out to students for educational use is nothing new in India. In the past they’ve done similar things for around the US equivalent of $50 or $60– but this price is crazy low. That being said, getting a tablet like this in another country (without subsidizing) would still cost around $60-$80 in order to make a profit.

Do you think that other countries should adopt a similar policy in order to get technology into the hands of students that couldn’t otherwise afford it?

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It may not be coming jam-packed with features as the new iPad which becomes available today for the cost of an arm and leg, and it may not be as thin as the teased stainless steel Archos slate, but it certainly is unbeatable when it comes to its price tag. The ridiculously cheap Aakash 2 tablet, which is the successor to the $35 Aakash tablet designed for the students in India, will be launched in the country in the coming month with a price tag of just $40.

Yes, you heard that right, the device will cost only that much. And although it can never be placed alongside all the high-end tablets out there, it features some better components when compared to its predecessor and is expected to come with improved performance (and don’t forget the $40 price).

The new Aakash will come equipped with a 700MHz Cortex A8 processor, a 3200 mAh battery (promises 3 hours of use), 512 MB of RAM and a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen display (replaces the resistive one). That may not look too great, but the previous Aakash lasts just around 2 hours and its performance was not that awesome either.

Although some are saying that the device will run Android 2.2 Froyo, it might arrive with Gingerbread on board. In case you are new to the OS, ICS is never going to arrive. And support for Android Market, now called the Google Play Store, is also a possibility.

The Indian government wants to see a tablet in the hands of every student in the country within the next five to six years. That’s a mighty big task in a country which is home to over 1.2 billion people. Makers DataWind have promised to bring out 100,000 units, although that’s not going to be nearly enough.

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Thanks to the runaway success of the original model, called Aakash, a much beefier 7-inch second model of the UbiSlate 7, has now been announced.

The UbiSlate 7 touts the following specs:

• Android 2.3
• 7-inch touchscreen with 800×480 resolution
• Cortex A8 700 MHz Processor
• 3 hours battery life
• Wifi and GPRS
• HD Video playback
• one USB 2.0 port
• 256MB of RAM
• 2GB Internal Storage
• MicroSD slot for memory expansion

While these specifications aren’t exactly what some of us would call impressive, the price point of $57 US dollars certainly is. This model is actually $10 more expensive than the original, but features much improved specifications particularly in processing department (the original had a measly 336MHz Arm11 processor).

The device is expected to hit the markets in India in January, with DataWind planning to produce roughly 1,000 units per day.

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