Ave: A 7-inch Gingerbread tablet from Indian teenagers

Two teenagers from Hyderabad, India have developed a full-fledged Android 2.3 Gingerbread tablet PC. The device, dubbed Ave is a 7-inch tablet with 1.2GHz processor and 8GB built-in memory. First year engineering student Sareddy Chiman Prakash and another teen Nikhil are behind the tablet, which was released by Ponnala Lakshmaiah, IT and Communications Minister of Andhra Pradesh. A U.K-based technology firm, Sareddy Technologies, owned by Chiman Prakash’s family is to mass-produce and market Ave tablet in India.

Ave tablet

The students have crafted the full-grown tablet PC with an aim to integrate all essential features of a high-end tablet on a low-priced device. Unlike other Indian tablet experiments like Aakash, Ave is more advanced with rich components. Besides the built-in 8GB memory, the tablet features a microSD slot for 32GB memory. It is to come with compatibility zoom mode and has Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity options. With all the components, the tablet weighs at just 360 grams.

Sareddy Technologies intends to sell 1,000 units of the device in the first month of its release. The tablet is to be priced at around $250 (INR 12,999). Ave is meant as a multi-purpose device as all other tablets. You can watch movies, listen to music, play games and surf the web on the tablet. Of course, powered by Android, the gadget will support all major apps in the world.

With a price below 15K, the device will be quite attractive in Indian market, where top tablets come with a price above 30K. Of course, key tablets like Samsung Galaxy Tab and Apple iPad will lose market share with products like Ave in Indian market.

Ave comes just weeks after the arrival of Aakash, a $35 Android tablet from a team of engineering students at IIT, Jodhpur and DataWind, a London-based technology company. Aakash was undertaken by the government of India as a product to facilitate education among rural students in the country.

Besides Aakash, India has witnessed the arrival of some other low-priced Android tablets like Reliance Communication’s 3G Tab, which has the same price tag of INR 12,999 and Beet Teletech’s Beetel Magiq II, priced at INR 9,799. The look of Indian engineers and students for low-priced tablets is going wild. In future, we can see more similar tablets, which will grab the hearts of customers, who are unable to buy a Galaxy Tab 10.1 or Apple iPad 2.

It looks that Ave tablet will attain soil in India market in coming months. The device is to run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the recent version of the software. Hence, the device will support more apps. Customers can enjoy more features and capabilities. And because of these facts, efforts from the Hyderabad teens will gain attention. So far, top media outlets in India have covered the news of Ave tablet. Developers of the tablet are reportedly in talks with Reliance Digital and Bajaj Capital for financial schemes for students and others.

Via: IBN Live