Reliance Industries could probably team up with Aakash tablet maker, Datawind to bring a 4G tablet. Not just a 4G tablet but possibly the cheapest tablet by a big brand available commercially.
The ambitious target of both Reliance and Datawind is to sell a TD-LTE device at half the price of the tablets currently available. Both the companies seems to be in agreement with a price tag of Rs. 5000.
There is a popular Reliance 3G Tab, which is made by a different Reliance, the Reliance of Anil Ambani. The 4G tablet will be from Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance. In fact, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries is the only company to have a pan India TD-LTE license.
Reliance is planning to start its 4G operations in 2012 and it will not be launching its services without appropriate partnerships. The current crop of devices are not ready for Indian consumption because of their expensive nature. Reliance is not known for selling expensive stuff. From that perspective, the Datawind deal makes all the more sense.
If Reliance offers its 4G tablet at the price promised, India could leapfrog all the consumer devices ever produced to access the Internet and land straight up on tablets.
TD-LTE will offer better speeds and a cheap Reliance 4G Tablet probably leapfrog India’s connectivity option in a way Broadband, Mobile and 3G together could never achieve.