Aakash 2 $35 Tablet to Get Upgrade before its Launch

India’s $35 tablet got plenty of attention when it was announced a couple of years back and now, it seems like the second version of the Aakash tablet will launch in the next few weeks. This time, the 7-inch device will get a hardware upgrade before it launches. What can be expected from the Aakash 2 is a 7-inch capacitive multi-touch screen, an 800MHz single-core ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 256MB of RAM and 2GB of internal storage.

With the prices of components dropping, it is also rumored that some hardware will be upgraded before its official launch with rumors of a dual-core A9 process by the end of the year. According to a statement made by Suneet Singh Tuli who is the CEO of Datawind (producers of the Aakash tablets), “the device will ship with Android 2.3 but will be upgraded to Android 4.0 six to eight weeks after its launch.” He added that the initial cost to purchase the tablet was $45 but thanks to a subsidy from the Indian government, 5 million units have been budgeted with each one able to have a selling price of just $35.