How do you make a nine inch tablet affordable to a Sri Lankan buyer? The answer to this question is simple enough. It has to be designed and assembled locally and that is what EWIS has done in partnership with Microsoft. Together the two companies have come up with a winning device “EWIS T900G" at a price that is very affordable.

A hybrid device is both a tablet and a laptop and comes with a detachable keyboard. EWIS’s hybrid T900G comes at a fraction of the price of similar devices, and includes the original Windows 8 Operating System (OS). This is the first full featured hybrid device to be launched by a Sri Lankan company, which is designed for both content consumption and creation, enabling greater productivity compared to other tablet devices.

What’s even more unique about this product is that it is assembled at a rural manufacturing facility located in Sooriyawewa, Hambantota. EWIS, which has pioneered this venture, has over 140 employees operating in an assembly line to produce locally designed computers which has all the touch points and quality of an international product.

EWIS’s T900G is an innovative - an international standard product assembled to suit local needs. The notebook is packaged with Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 operating system, along with one year subscription of Office 365 Personal which offers premium subscription benefits such as 1TB of free cloud space, allowing free 60 minutes per month on Skype where users can call Skype to mobile. The device is powered by a quad core Intel processor with 2 GB of DDR3 (Double Data Rate) memory and has a storage capacity of 32GB. Its HD LCD (High Definition Liquid Crystal Display) touch screen display delivers a 1920x1080 pixel resolution, which is a breakthrough technology for tablet of this form factor. The EWIS T900G also boasts a 2 Megapixel active front webcam and a 5 Megapixel rear cam that enables it to capture memories in high quality mode.

This hybrid device is flexible and can be used in different scenarios according to the needs of the user. In the corporate sector, employees can use it as a laptop as it offers almost all the necessary office functions such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and Access as well as some added management features that business IT departments will appreciate. “Therefore, this product will work as a productivity tool in the corporate sector but at the same time it can also be used as a tablet so by producing this unit we have redefined work life balance bringing it to an whole new level,” says Rajitha De Silva, General Manager of EWIS Colombo Limited.

With lifestyles and work needs converging, we are seeing the demand for devices which are mobile, flexible and cloud enabled. This applies to the demands of students and educators as well. As such we are already seeing a growing demand for hybrid devices and are committed to deliver the best to our customers at an affordable price. We believe that this product will change the way people work and redefine productivity in the corporate sector. As a local company, partnering with Microsoft, EWIS has taken several initiatives recently to uplift rural education and enable access to digital technologies and devices which are more affordable.

“As a proud Sri Lankan company EWIS plans initially to bring down the cost of hardware to many business verticals and individual users. EWIS is stepping up to include assembling as well as manufacturing. We believe the next few years will see a huge growth in the mobile platform and the launch of this product can help the corporate sector as well as educators and students. EWIS plans to introduce this device to schools and institutions and pioneer a new culture in the education sector where it will create a true digitalized educational system.”

Imran Vilcassim, Country Manager of Microsoft Sri Lanka said: “Our longstanding partnership with EWIS has seen many successful initiatives that has benefitted the IT Industry in Sri Lanka. Microsoft has successfully made the shift to addressing the needs of a mobile-first, cloud first world, and our partnerships with companies like EWIS are key to enabling easy access to technology to more people from all walks of life. We are pleased to partner with EWIS which has had immense success in creating cutting edge hardware for local and regional markets affordably and is very much in line with Microsoft’s vision to support Sri Lanka’s national vision for IT.”

About EWIS: With its 28 years of experience and exposure in the IT industry in Sri Lanka, EWIS has become the leading IT company in the country, offering a range of IT related solutions to the Sri Lankan market from manufacturing PCs to IT infrastructure, peripherals, software solutions, engineering services , networking etc. EWIS revolutionized the Sri Lankan IT industry in 2013 along with their past experience with world’s largest IT Companies by pioneering a state-of-the-art Original Device Manufacturing (ODM) facility in Sooriyawewa – Hambanthota – Sri Lanka, partnering with the world’s leading processor manufacturer, Intel Corporation and Microsoft Corporation. Currently the facility produces around 550 PCs per day and distributes them to some of the largest institutes in the public and corporate sector in Sri Lanka. EWIS has sold more than 88,000 devices in the year 2014 including Desktop, Notebook, Netbook, Kiosk & Tablet devices.

About Microsoft: Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services, devices, and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.