Datawind to Launch New Smartphone With Free Internet

| Updated: Thursday, September 18, 2014, 19:05 [IST]

The Indian smartphone market is an exciting place to be in recent times. There are a host of smartphone makers that are present and offering handsets at the least price possible. But a smartphone with free Internet forever? Well, Datawind is claiming the same.

Datawind on Thursday announced that it will be launching a brand new Rs. 2,000 smartphone before Diwali. And also that the handset will come bundled with free Internet for life. Sounds brilliant, doesn't it?

While not much was given out in terms of details for the handset, but the company did reveal that the new device will be based on Android operating system and will arrive with a 3.5-inch size factor. Datawind currently has three smartphones and 5 tablets under its portfolio and is selling 40,000-50,000 devices every month.

"We are looking forward to launch our Rs. 2,000 smartphone and few other devices before Diwali and intent is to double our sales by the end of this calender year," Datawind Executive vice-president Rupinder Singh said.

He further added that the company is currently in talks with as many as three different mobile operators for the lifetime free Internet offer. However, it has refused to give out more details since the deal is yet to be finalised.

Datawind already boasted the contract to supply 1 lakh units of Aakash tablets priced at $49.98 apiece in 2011, translated into a price of Rs. 2,276 at that time. The project was then handled by IIT Jodhpur which provided the specifications for the product.

It, however, ran into controversy following IIT Jodhpur rejecting the devices manufactured by Datawind. The project was then shifted under IIT Bombay and Datawind was asked to supply better version of the product, Aakash 2.