Jeotex Inc. (formerly known as Datawind Inc.) was a British-Canadian-Indian company that developed and manufactured low-cost tablet computers and smartphones. It was founded in 2001, Montreal, Quebec. The company aimed to produce tablets primarily for markets in India, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. Jeotex has created the Aakash tablet computer, which was marketed as the "world's cheapest tablet" as it was priced at US$37.99 per unit in 2012. The Aakash was developed for India's Ministry for Human Resource Development (MHRD).
Jeotex also manufactured mobile internet devices, including PocketSurfer smartphones and Ubi-Surfer netbooks. Datawind was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange from 2014 to October 2018 when it was relisted to the TSX Venture Exchange after failing to meet the listing requirements. It was delisted from the TSX Venture Exchange in 2021.
Datawind maintained offices in Montreal, Mississauga, London, Delhi and Amritsar. At a shareholder meeting in April 2019, it was agreed to change the name of the company to Jeotex Inc., and the change took effect later that month. However, on 10 June 2021, the company was declared bankrupt.
History Datawind was founded in Montreal in 2001 by brothers Suneet and Raja Tuli. Raja Tuli grew up in Northern Alberta, Canada. Suneet Tuli is a civil engineer who graduated from the University of Toronto, while Raja Tuli is a computer engineer, who graduated from the University of Alberta.http://www.indusbusinessjournal.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=99CCB0F509994B6A9683D321CA01422B Suneet Tuli was Datawind's chief executive officer and was responsible for its vision, strategy, and execution. Raja Tuli was the company's co-chairman and chief technology officer; he is an inventor with dozens of patents across a broad range of technologies related to the internet, imaging, and energy sustenance.
Datawind's product range included PocketSurfer smartphones and UbiSlate tablets. The company held a portfolio of 14 international patents for its web-delivery platform, which served as the foundation for its products. The company manufactured, marketed, and sold UbiSlate tablets to various countries, and also provided a year of free internet browsing in some countries. In collaboration with the government of India, the company developed the Aakash tablet, which gained worldwide attention for being "the world's cheapest tablet".
With its research and development based in Montreal, the company launched its first products in 2004,https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-10/18/suneet-singh-tuli and their products were sold primarily in the United Kingdom. In 2004, the company was described as a "small tech shop" while marketing its key product, the PocketSurfer, a PDA/mobile phone/web browsing device. Several iterations of the PocketSurfer followed.
In 2009, the Indian government 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, specifically developed for the Indian government's goal of enhancing the quality of education. To encourage the growth of 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 and to the public (as the Ubislate 7) for $60. Some analysts speculated the tablet will have a positive impact on the education sector and “has the potential to positively impact billions”. In his study, Rajat Kathuria, external consultant at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), stated the Indian economy could grow 10.08% faster with every 10% increase in internet and broadband connections in the country.
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. Following the commercial launch of the UbiSlate tablets, the company was 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. The company had plans to expand into tablet markets in the UK, the US, and Canada. Datawind also considered working with governments, NGOs, and distributors in Latin American and African countries, where its products were being deployed.
In 2012, 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.
On 26 April 2012, Datawind launched the Ubislate 7+ and 7C tablets in India, by which time three million units had 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.
In July 2014, the company completed its initial public offering of 6,316,000 common shares at $4.75 CAD per share, totaling $30 million CAD. Datawind's shares traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol, "DW". In November 2016, Datawind launched its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Hyderabad.
By October 2018, the company was delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange, after its share price had fallen to $0.02 per share.
Technology 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, which serves Web pages as compressed images. 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," 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,http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&TERM1=raja&FIELD1=IN&co1=AND&TERM2=tuli&FIELD2=IN&d=PG01 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 PocketSurfer 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 PocketSurfer's page-load times. Various media outlets conducted live, speed tests on television with competitive products, including some on 3G networks, which resulted in DataWind's PocketSurfer beating its competition in terms of page download time.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine:
Business model 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. Datawind's web-delivery platform reduces bandwidth consumption.
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. 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 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.
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. The tablets will also come with Yahoo! Cricket, the Yahoo! Mail application. Yahoo! India will be the default-browser homepage for the Ubislate 7+.
On December 3, 2013, Datawind partnered with IT firm Happiest Minds Technologies to develop applications for its UbiSlate range of tablets. Under the partnership, Happiest Minds will develop Datawind's app store, which will be designed for first-time Android users.
Network operator partnerships In July 2009, Datawind collaborated with Vodafone to offer a bundled SIM and GPRS modem within the price of its PocketSurfer devices, thus allowing free access to the Internet 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.
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 global, mobile- network operator with major Indian operations, to offer unlimited internet browsing for one year on all Datawind devices.