As per the earlier reports Aakash 2 was to launch in the month of April 2012, but now it has been postponed to May 2012. Kapil Sibal, HRD minister confirmed this today stating that the upgraded version will be fabulous.
Those having faith in the Aakash 2 project will have to wait a little longer. And those who had booked the tablet a few months back, I would suggest they forget about it. In his statement Sibal has confirmed that the Aakash 2 will initially go through the test phase and only if the quality and performance is satisfactory, and children are happy with it, only then will the low cost tablet be commercialized.
This means that for general audience there is no specific timeline. Thankfully there are many alternative tablets flooding the Indian markets and those who cannot wait are making a jump into it. The unprofessional approach is not going to help the manufactures / companies who are planning to sell these low end devices or already made their presence in the market.
What is more surprising is that Kapil Sibal said that the upgraded tablet will be fabulous and as per him fabulous means a processing speed of 700 MHz with battery juice of 3 hours. Anyway you cannot expect too much from an ultra low cost tablet. One good thing that is going to happen is that these tablets will come with a capacitive touchscreen.
I am really not sure when the tablet will be available for general public but looking at the situation it might take few months or years. And in case you have no trust left in the Indian politicians, Aakash may never happen.