computer hardware founded 2001 montreal canada headquarters mississauga ontario canada 1 key people suneet tuli ceo raja tuli co founder cto dan hilton cfo products aakash tablet ubislate pocketsurfer slogan bridging the digital divide website www.datawind.com founded in montreal canada datawind is a developer of wireless web access products and services . 2 datawind manufactures low cost tablets for the purpose of education in developing countries . the company is known for its development of the aakash tablet computer which is the world s cheapest tablet at us 37.99 unit . the aakash tablet was developed for india s ministry for human resource development mhrd . 3 4 in addition to its aakash tablet datawind manufactures a series of mobile internet devices such as pocketsurfer smartphones ubisurfer netbooks and ubislate tablets . the company s devices use a patented web delivery platform for faster and low cost internet access on mobile networks . datawind is listed on the toronto stock exchange . datawind has offices in montreal mississauga london delhi and amritsar . 5 contents 1 history 2 technology 3 business model 4 content applications and advertising based partnerships 5 network operator partnerships 6 partnerships for social causes 6.1 contests 6.2 hackathons 6.3 non governmental organizations ngos 7 awards & recognition 8 products 8.1 pocket surfer series 8.2 ubisurfer netbooks 8.3 aakash tablets 8.4 ubislate tablets 9 references 10 external links history edit datawind was founded in montreal 5 in 2001 by brothers suneet and raja tuli . 6 7 suneet and raja tuli grew up in northern alberta canada . suneet tuli is a civil engineer who graduated from the university of toronto . raja is a computer engineer who graduated from the university of alberta . 8 suneet tuli is datawind s chief executive officer and is responsible for its vision strategy and execution . raja tuli is the company s co chairman and chief technology officer ; he is also an inventor with dozens of patents across a broad range of technologies related to the internet to imaging and to energy sustenance . 9 datawind s product range includes pocketsurfer smartphones and ubislate tablets . the company has a portfolio of 14 international patents for its web delivery platform which serves as the basis for its product innovations . the company manufactures markets and sells ubislate tablets to consumers worldwide and also provides a year of free internet browsing in various countries . in collaboration with the government of india the company has also developed the aakash tablet which has gained worldwide attention for being the cheapest tablet . with its research and development based in montreal the company launched its first products in 2004 10 and their products were sold primarily in the united kingdom . 11 in 2004 the company was described as a small tech shop 12 marketing its key product the pocketsurfer a pda mobile phone web browsing device . several iterations of the pocketsurfer followed . in 2009 the indian government had pledged a low cost laptop to improve the quality of education within the country ; however the development process was beset by delays until datawind won the tender for the tablet in late 2011 . in the same year datawind made its entry into the indian market with the launch of the aakash tablet developed for the indian government to enhance the quality of education . to enable ubiquitous nationwide internet use the indian government announced at the october 2011 launch of the aakash tablet that it will be offered to students at a subsidized price of 35 6 and to the public as the ubislate 7 for 60 . 6 at the subsidized price the tablet would cost the same as a pair of shoes or a basic mobile phone . 13 some analysts claim that the tablet will not only have a positive impact on the education sector but will also lead to positive changes in healthcare and other sectors besides improving internet penetration in the country . in his study rajat kathuria external consultant at the indian council for research on international economic relations icrier stated that the indian economy could grow 10.08 % faster with every 10 % increase in internet and broadband connections in the country . 14 the ubislate tablets were commercially launched in april 2012 by which time bookings for the device had exceeded three million units more than ten times the size of the total market for tablets in india in the previous year . 15 since the commercial launch of the ubislate tablets the company has been among the top three suppliers of tablets in india according to cybermedia research . in the first quarter of 2013 datawind dominated the indian tablet market with the largest market share of tablets sold in india excluding the aakash devices that were to be supplied to the government . 16 going forward the company has plans to expose itself to tablet markets in the uk the us and canada . datawind is also working with governments ngos and distributors in latin american and african countries where its products are being deployed . 17 in 2012 18 forbes magazine named the ceo of datawind suneet tuli among the impact 15 list of classroom revolutionaries who use innovative technologies to reinvent education for students and teachers throughout the world . 19 on 26 april 2012 datawind launched ubislate 7 and 7c tablets in india by which time three million units had already been booked . in 2013 according to cyber media research india s quarterly market report during the first quarter of 2013 as published in the times of india datawind had a market share of 15.3 % ; the company pulled ahead of rivals micromax and apple although this strong market did not include the aakash series of tablets 20 in july 2014 the company completed its initial public offering 21 of 6 316 000 common shares at 4.75 cad per share totaling 30 million cad . datawind s shares trade on the toronto stock exchange under the symbol dw . technology edit datawind s low cost devices allow access to the internet at lower data costs and faster speeds across congested mobile wireless networks by using the company s patented data compression technology . 22 in a 2011 interview the company stated that it would lower the price of the tablet by developing patents to shift the device s processing burden to backend servers in the cloud 23 datawind identified the need for low cost devices for web access as a means to provide an alternative to increasing costs of mobile internet devices caused by the corresponding increases in web complexity which require greater memory and processing power . datawind s web delivery platform reduces bandwidth consumption by creating a parallel processing environment which shifts the burden of memory and processing power to back end servers thus allowing users to access the web with a lower cost device and lower data costs . datawind s web delivery platform serves as the basis for its product innovations . based on a patent portfolio of 14 us and international patents 24 25 datawind s technology accelerates the delivery of web content across wireless networks and reduces data consumption by a factor of ten . datawind s acceleration and data reduction is accomplished through the use of proprietary algorithms on its application servers which constitute a gateway between the primary internet based content server selected by the user and the end user . datawind claims that its patented acceleration technology allows its devices to deliver the fastest mobile web experience across cellular networks . a product review by pc magazine of the pocket surfer stated that it s the only device that allows users to browse the web on a gprs connection with any alacrity . in 2005 cnet stated that it was impressed with pocket surfer s page load times . 26 various media outlets conducted live speed tests on television with competitive products including some on 3g networks which resulted in datawind s pocket surfer beating its competition in terms of page download time . 27 business model edit datawind s business model focuses on providing to entry level users a cost effective web access device with free internet access . the company as a mobile virtual network operator mvno purchases wholesale access to mobile data from wireless network operators or as part of a bundling relationship in order to offer free mobile internet access to its customers . 28 datawind s web delivery platform reduces bandwidth consumption . 29 in november 2012 in an interview with the new york times datawind s ceo explained that the company s business model was focused on pursuing price sensitive entry level consumers on forgoing hardware margins and on driving a recurring revenue stream i.e. after sales revenue from network operators content subscriptions device warranties page impressions location based content and advertising . datawind s advertising revenues are generated by loading applications on its devices . 20 the company has formulated a full service ecosystem of revenue streams that drive down the cost of hardware ; hence the devices act as customer acquisition tools that provide free mobile internet services . datawind has partnered with numerous firms as part of a comprehensive supplier and partner strategy to build applications and generate content for its devices . content applications and advertising based partnerships edit datawind has partnerships with multiple firms to develop installed free content for its devices . the content includes educational language based interactive smart books multimedia games and productivity tools . on 20 november 2013 according to an article published in the financial express datawind driving its mission to see smart devices as education tools partnered with american education provider ck 12 foundation providing high quality free mathematics and science learning content that can be used by teachers students schools and parents . ck 12 content would be installed on most of the company s devices ; the company stated that installed content on tablets will allow students to learn at their own pace regardless of their locations ; also this content may be updated at regular intervals . 30 datawind announced content partnerships with the indian express group and yahoo . according to this agreement the ubislate 7 and the ubislate 7c will come with the indian express news application and customers of these new tablets will receive a 50 % discount on annual subscriptions of the indian express and the financial express . 31 the tablets will also come with yahoo cricket the yahoo mail application . yahoo india will be the default browser homepage for the ubislate 7 . datawind has also partnered with blueworld portal to encourage a socially conscious approach to the internet . blueworld is a social community which allows anyone to create a profile and to connect with friends to meet people to upload an unlimited number of photos to share videos to write blogs to support peers through groups and to send text messages . on december 3 2013 datawind partnered with it firm happiest minds technologies to develop applications and solutions for its ubislate range of tablets . under the partnership happiest minds will develop datawind s app store which will be designed to create a synergistic customer experience for first time android users . 32 network operator partnerships edit in july 2009 datawind collaborated with vodafone to offer a bundled sim and gprs modem within the price of its pocket surfer devices thus allowing free access to the internet 33 across the united kingdom . in december 2013 bsnl one of india s largest network operators entered a partnership with datawind to offer its services on the company s tablets . 34 in march 2015 datawind partnered with reliance communications to offer bundled unlimited internet browsing for one year with any of its devices . in september 2015 datawind entered a partnership with telenor india a