A tablet computer originally made for an educational scheme run by the Indian government has launched in the UK for only £30.

Starting at £29.99 the self-proclaimed “world’s cheapest tablet” the UbiSlate 7Ci significantly undercuts the competition on price including the £119 Tesco Hudl, £80 Aldi Lifetab and the £200 Google Nexus 7, but does not compare favourably on specifications.

The UbiSlate features a low-resolution 7in touchscreen, 1GHz processor, 4GB of storage with a microSD card slot, and runs a modified version of Android 4.0.3 “Ice Cream Sandwich”. It comes bundled with a series of apps for education, entertainment, gaming and productivity, aiming to bring computer and internet access to everyone.

"With recent ONS figures showing that in the UK, 29% of the poorest households have no computer and 36% no internet, we’re working to bring affordable technology to the hundreds of thousands of households excluded from the digital revolution”, said Datawind’s chief executive Suneet Singh Tuli.

Aakash mark two

The UbiSlate 7Ci is the cheapest in a new line of Datawind tablets, which include the £50 3G data-enabled UbiSlate 7C+ and the £129 UbiSlate 3G7 – a slightly faster tablet with a higher resolution screen and 3G mobile data.

The UbiSlate tablet was originally produced by London-based Datawind for the Indian government as the Aakash (or “sky” in Hindi) series of tablets as part of India’s effort to put ultra-low cost tablets in universities and colleges.

The Aakash was initially announced as a development by Indian scientists for a tablet computer that could be manufactured for just $35 in 2010. Datawind later won the tender to build the tablets from the Indian government in 2011, before shipping them to Indian students in 2012 and following up with the Aakash 2 tablet on which the UbiSlate 7Ci is based.

“The development of the tablet stemmed from the realisation that lack of internet adoption in many parts of the world was primarily due to lack of affordability,” said Singh Tuli. “We’re bridging the gap by offering cost-effective, high-specification devices and internet access that offers excellent value to all.”

‘Tablets under £100 have excellent gifting potential’

According to data provided by research firm IDC, tablet computers are set to overtake PC sales this year, growing to 229.3m units worldwide fuelled by lower cost devices.

"Tablets under £100 have excellent gifting potential this Christmas," says Francisco Jeronimo, smartphones and tablets analyst with the research firm IDC. "Parents looking to give gifts to children and teenagers are unlikely to spend £400-500 on a tablet, so tablets sub-£100 are less of an investment and more of an attractive disposable gift."

In 2012, 8.3m tablets were sold in the UK, according research firm CCS Insight with over half of those sales coming in the last three months of the year. Retailer Argos sold 1m tablets in 2012.

In the first half of 2013 alone, almost 6m tablets were sold in the UK and demand is expected to accelerate into Christmas.

UK retail giants Tesco, Argos and Aldi recently launched tablets of their own available for £119 and under competing with sub-£200 Android tablets from Google and Amazon. The Datawind UbiSlate undercuts the competition by at least £50.

"When it comes to tablets, the intensity of competition between UK retailers is staggering," said Ben Wood, mobile analyst with CCS Insight.

Since launch at the end of September, Tesco has sold over 300,000 of its Hudl tablets, and has struggled to keep store shelves stocked.

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