India's $35 tablet - vaporware or the real deal?
Summary: The Indian government unveiled a working prototype today of a small tablet computer that it says will initially sell for $35. The same organization within the government, however, also announced a prototype $10 laptop last year amid initiatives to connect all of India's college-age students to learning resources.
The Indian government unveiled a working prototype today of a small tablet computer that it says will initially sell for $35. The same organization within the government, however, also announced a prototype $10 laptop last year amid initiatives to connect all of India's college-age students to learning resources. Obviously, $10 netbooks aren't flying off the shelves or in the hands of Bangalore's next generation of IT workers. So is this the real deal?
There's actually a fair amount of evidence to suggest that this one will see the light of day, although one has to wonder if $35 is reasonable outside of India where government subsidies could keep costs down. Given rapidly falling equipment costs, though, $35-50 isn't outlandish, particularly with recent advances from Pixel Qi and potential ODM interest in Taiwan to manufacture these devices at scale.
Further examination of the specs and video of a working prototype inspire a bit more confidence in this iteration as well:
Again, while Nicholas Negroponte is known for his accuracy in predicting prices for OLPC products, he is seeing $75 as a price point for a proposed tablet-based iteration of the OLPC XO. Clearly, $75 is the price to beat for schools and education ministries to roll out any sort of tablet on truly large scales, but the $35 tablet, with no internal storage, also presumes a set of cloud applications to support learning efforts. These web applications will need to leverage emerging mobile technologies to ensure that they are touch optimized, fast, and rich in ways that HTML 5 continues to promise.
No word on which version of Linux will power the device, assuming it comes to market, or how it will cultivate a developer ecosystem, but it seems pretty likely that 2011 will see a host of inexpensive tablet devices that could be quickly deployed in educational settings if the software and apps are there to support it. Hey, what was that I was saying about living in an app world?
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Talkback
Um. No.
Agree
Get what you pay for?
Yes!
Seriously, Macs are a lot better computers than your regular brand name cookie cutter PC clone.
RE: India's $35 tablet - vaporware or the real deal?
u nuts?
you know iPad manufacturing costs just 220 bucks? and they sell for $500+? it is not impossible to create one with $35. also they have mentioned that it is subsidized. so there.
How is a minimum cost of $200 not imposible to drop to $35???
RE: India's $35 tablet - vaporware or the real deal?
iPad is overpriced
Go compared a 32GB iPod Touch with a 32GB WiFi ipad.... You're paying $300 more for just a bigger screen and no new functionality.
RE: India's $35 tablet - vaporware or the real deal?
Err. I agree with you.
I feel so dirty now...
Wireless mainframe terminals... Larry Ellison should be happy.
RE: India's $35 tablet - vaporware or the real deal?
I do not understand how do you people comment without knowing all the facts and by just reading an article..
for your kind info, the batteries and all will be built from scratch in such a way that it takes a minor fraction of the 35$ cost. In fact all of the components are being engineered from scratch and not your Mac style where you purchase components from other vendors , assemble them together and sell them to you for 1k$ and you go yuppiiee i got a Mac!! There is a world beyond Mac's .. grow up people. You should not be surprised if the chinese come out with a 20$ one in 2 years of time.
RE: India's $35 tablet - vaporware or the real deal?
They are going to build and engineer batteries and all electrical components from scratch? And DRAM, LCD panel and silicon wafer technology too? Each of these plants cost billions of dollars to build and millions each hour to operate. Reengineer these things that the Korean, Taiwanese, and Japanese have already spent decades and hundreds of billions of dollars to research and engineer? The LCD panel alone would cost $35 with current technology and investment to produce. But I guess they will come up with new technology, give the technology away to Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers, give them billions of dollars to set up a plant, and have them make $1 panels for them.
outside the class
OLPC XO: the new way of doing multi-tasking...
So, instead of trying to get one tablet to open up a bunch of applications at one time, you could have a bunch of those cheap tablets, with each of those OLPC XO tablets handling one app at a time. So, for the price of a $700 iPad, one could get perhaps some 10 or 20 OLPC XO tablets, and run some 10 or 20 apps, one per tablet. All you'd need then is a place to put all the tablets. Perhaps someone will invent a tablet rolodex to stack them like dominoes?
RE: India's $35 tablet - vaporware or the real deal?
Meanwhile, you didn't really comment on the topic at hand and...
I've always believed that if someone has nothing to contribute to the discussion, that they should keep their mouths shut (or their keyboards unused). You failed to keep your mouth shut and your keyboard was used for basically typing asinine remarks. Why waste your time and everybody else's when you have nothing of value to contribute?
Besides all that, you need to go back to school to learn some written communications skills, especially on grammar and spelling. If English is not your first language, then just use sign language (you'll do a lot better that way).
Besides the total ignorance that you displayed on your post, you are also especially arrogant and insensitive with your remarks concerning the 9/11 attacks. While you may have thought that you were being cute and/or better informed, all that I could gather from your post is that you are simply stupid and ignorant and a lot worse informed than the people that you attacked with your post.
RE: India's $35 tablet - vaporware or the real deal?
RE: India's $35 tablet - vaporware or the real deal?
In facing the challenge, let us not forget that we still excel in the important areas of education, technology, individual freedoms, the arts, entertainment, elective government, our courts, natural resources, and yes, even our health care. Moreover, labor costs should eventually reach an equilibrium across the globe, since people and their needs are the same across the globe.
Yet, an even greater challenge lies ahead, and with far greater consequences than cheap computer technology: This is the abundant energy from the sun, and our constantly improving ways to capture it and store it the form of hydrogen. Thus while the sun for centuries had dried-up huge lands, it is about to make them vibrant with cheap electricity for industry and living.
By the time we take notice, the geopolitical implications will be beyond anybody?s control. For those of us who are accustomed to having our way, times may get a lot rougher ahead. But there ain't no going back to the world of yesterday. The sooner we accept this, the sooner we can roll up our sleeves to compete on the global stage -- the only forum left.
Geez! That was so profound, and so... what's the word I'm looking for...