India's US$35 tablet has yet to take off, with less than 10,000 units of the device released to the market since its October launch, despite considerable interest from consumers, according to an executive of maker, DataWind.

India's highly touted $US35 tablet, set to ship in two to three weeks, is getting a makeover with improved hardware and Google's Android 4.0 OS, according to the company assembling the device for the Indian government.

According to a report published in the Indian financial daily, The Economic Times, it seems that the wait for the world's cheapest tablet Aakash is likely to get even longer.

Four hundred thousand, that was the number of units pre-ordered in October last year by people eager to get their hands on the commercial version of the Aakash Tablet, the world's cheapest tablet device, slated for release this month by Montreal-based tech upstart DataWind Inc.

DataWind is targeting sales of about 6 million units of its low-cost tablet in India this year, but it has to arrange additional manufacturing capacity and strengthen its support network to meet what looks like an unexpected surge in demand, an executive of the company said.

India is closer to its much-touted target of a US$35 tablet, with DataWind, a wireless Web access products maker in Montreal, designing and making a device that it will sell to the government for $50.

Impact Systems has been appointed distributor for Canadian Web access technology maker, Datawind.