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scribers, 15.05 million were broadband connections; 6.56million were narrowband connections; and a whopping143.20 million accessed the internet through mobilephones. (These numbers are based on connections registered,but are not indicative of active users.) When it comesto mobile telephony, the penetration level is greater in urbanIndia. In March 2013, of the total 867.80 million wirelesstelephone subscribers, 525.30 million were in urbancentres.While email is the most used service, 28% read news onlineand 25% users accessed apps. Online games were accessedby nearly 50% of mobile internet users. [N3] Butsocial media is steadily outstripping all other uses in urbancentres, as observed by the Comscore study cited above.India registered 73.5 million mobile handset sales for theperiod January–April 2013, registering a growth of 11.1%year-on-year, according to CyberMedia Research. Duringthe same period, 9.4 million smartphones were shipped inthe country, showing a growth of 167.3% on an annualbasis.The sale of tablet computers is rising, strengthening thedemand for variety of content. An estimated 3 million weresold in 2012, from 0.5 million in 2011, according to theresearch agency, which had predicted that 6 million wouldsell in 2013. The growth in shipments of tablets in Indiaregistered a 107.4 % year-on-year growth in the secondquarter of 2013. About 1.15 million tablets were sold in justthe second quarter of 2013 by as many as 70 domestic andinternational vendors, according to the research agency.Almost 80% of the tablet device models launched duringthis period were with both of 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity,leading to a growth of 103% in shipments of 3G tablets.Local brands are fiercely competing with global manufacturersfor a share in the tablet market. The Indian consumerhas no bias against local brands, perhaps because of theprice-sensitivity of the Indian market.It was only with the launch of Amazon’s Kindle India Storein August 2012 that a Kindle device (Kindle Wi-Fi 6”) wasavailable at an introductory price in India when the UScompany tied-up with the local Croma retail chain. Untilthen, Kindle devices, and perhaps a few Sony eReaders,were imported. Kobo will launch in India soon, and thecompany already identified a retail partner. [N4] Kobo’sentry is likely to create robust competition to the ereaderdevices segment.India’s preference for multi-feature devices that offer morevalue—over and above read-only devices like an ereader—is perhaps the reason for proliferation of low-cost andAndroid-based devices in the country. It is not surprisingthat 63.5% of tablets sold in the period between July–September2012 were those priced below Rs 10,000 ($167).Although the sales of smartphones and tablets are growingstrongly, and tablets have outstripped netbook salestoo, most ereading continues to take place on personalcomputers and laptops.Government interventions in ereading technologyThe launch of the “cheapest tablet computer in the world”– Aakash – brought attention to the potential that low-costtechnologies have to revolutionise internet access amonga mass population. Fashioned as a public-private partnershipproject, the Android-based Aakash was to be subsidizedby Government of India for students. The device wasto be procured by the Ministry of Human Resource.Developed for Rs 2,263 ($38) by manufacturer DatawindLimited, it was to be made available to college and universitystudents at Rs 1,130 ($19). Specifications for the thirdedition of Aakash were announced in early January 2013.But by end of January, the MHRD announced that it wasthinking of shelving the project due to a supply gap coupledby the availability of other low-cost devices in themarket. The future of the project remains uncertain.In the meantime Aakash has reached the US, where pilotsaimed at helping schoolchildren learn maths and othersubjects have been underway, in North Carolina and SanFrancisco. The company supplied 100 devices at $45. Followingthe pilot, about 2000 units have been shipped.In August 2013, it was reported that the government wasexploring plans to develop and sell smartphones costingless than $100 to Indians, to drive the country’s broadbandpush. More recently, it was reported that the governmentwas setting aside Rs 10,000 crore ($1,666.67 m) to giveaway 2.5 crore (25 million) mobile phones at subsidizedrates in rural areas and 90 lakh (9 million) tablets free ofcost to students of classes 9 and 10 studying in governmentareas.Elearning contentAt least 60% of all printed books sold in India are educationalbooks. The emphasis on education has enabled earlyadoption of digital content in Indian universities, for almosta decade now. In the higher education and academiccategory, especially in STM segment, ejournals have beenavailable to institutions and libraries. Journals publishedby publishers like Springer, Taylor & Francis, Elsevier, andThe Global eBook Report 76