Jet tab Do it yourself tablet PC course

Jet Tab will be used initially at the company's institutes, where students will be taught to assemble the tablet along with training in trouble shooting and tablet synchronization. The students will be given the tablet free at the end of the 12-day course.In the second phase, the tablet will be commercially launched by end-August. The commercial product, which will also be in a kit format, will contain a user manual to instruct users how to assemble the tablet. The company is betting on this tablet PC becoming an important mode of learning in the next few years. "The idea behind DIY is to create a strong attachment between the product and the buyer. As the consumer would himself construct the tablet, it is a sense of pride for him," said Suresh Bharwani, chairman and managing director, Jetking. "Jet Tab will provide essential features such as web surfing, video chatting with ease and speed."Mr. Bharwani explained, "DIY makes people learn about everything that goes into the making of the tablet, thereby enabling people to understand each feature and make optimum use of it with the added skill of addressing trouble-shooting, if at all the need arises. Being an institute first, we wish to train a large number of people, as in the near future we see the tablet PC replacing desktops for the new generation." The course consists of two daily lectures to be conducted over 12 days, with the focus on providing hands-on-experience to students. Already 360 students of Jetking have enrolled for this course, mainly in Delhi, Mumbai and the Punjab. Siddharth Bharwani, the company's head of marketing and corporate communication, said, "Currently the course is not mandatory for students. But two-three months down the line it would be part of Jetking's current courses." Jet Tab is based on the Android 2.1 operating system. The company has made an investment of Rs40 lakh and expects to sell about 60,000 units in the current financial year. The focus will be on the 17-23 years age-group. "We are mainly targeting the urban markets like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad with a sales target of about 60,000 tablets in 2011-12, starting from September. Initially, Jet Tab would be sold at the company's computer institutes and later at schools and colleges." The market is already crowded with other PC tablets, like Apple's iPad and Samsung's Galaxy Tab. There are also a few domestic tablets such as Adam Tablet and Olive Tablet. Asked about the competition, Siddharth Bharwani explained, "Other tablets are more of lifestyle tablets. Our product is designed to educate the masses. Something like edu-Tablet. Our uniqueness lies in DIY format, which will be provided first by us. The tablet PC is the future of learning. From our vast teaching experience, we know the preference of students and other consumers. And hence this product will be launched keeping them in mind." On the operational and capital expenditure the company sees no threat. "We are a cash-rich, zero-debt company. I don't think capex and opex would be a problem." On the business, Suresh Bharwani said, "Jetking would soon open an institute in Vietnam by partnering with the local university. We are also aggressively looking into markets such as Nigeria and other South African and SAARC countries." Jet Tab would provide a warranty of six months and seven inches resistive touch display. It has a 16GB expandable capacity along with a 0.3megapixel camera. Currently, it does not support 3G, but has built-in Wi-Fi connectivity.