Get Ready For The Simputer

EccentricAnomaly writes: "CNN is reporting that the Simputer will roll out next month. The Simputer is a handheld computer running GNU/Linux starting at around $214 and is aiming to be an affordable computer for the third world that can be used even by the illiterate with its text-to-speech features. From the Simputer website: "The Simputer is a low cost portable alternative to PCs, by which the benefits of IT can reach the common man." Slashdot ran a story in May 2001 reporting the launch of the Simputer project." The same Reuters story is also found at the Hindustan Times.

Comments

Re:Bizarre claim about Simputer...

[big.ears]

India is one of the regions where microloans were pioneered. These are small loans of $5-$10 at a time, mostly to women in small villages, to create small businesses. It sounds crazy, but it really works. Among the businesses you would expect this to foster in such places (like farming, weaving, pottery, etc.), one of the more successful sectors is cellular phones. A family will take out these microloans to help finance their purchase of a cell phone, and then sell phone-time to everyone in the neighboring villages. This not only brings money to the family that owns the phone, but by being able to communicate with their friends/relatives in the city, the local residents are better able to operate their own businesses.

It appears to me that this is the model the Simputer people are looking toward. They sell these gadgets (probably with financing) to one family per village, and it lets your whole village communicate with the village 100 miles up the road, probably more cheaply than the cell phone (you don't have to wait for the guy who owns the phone to ride his goat over out to the farm you are calling to talk to your business partner).

So, the price isn't that different from the costs associated with a citizen of the US starting his/her own business. It could cost $30,000-100,000 to start up a bar or restaurant, or car repair shop, a small farm, or many other retail businesses.

Of course, I've never been to India, so maybe someone from there can fill in the details.

Simputer cost. (vs, say, Palm), and applications.

[vkg]

Partly, this is the first production run: probably half the run will go to aid agencies for evaluations ;-)

Once they get economies of scale going, cost will drop quickly - and in any case the cost of all micro-electronics manufacturing is constantly dropping (except for Apple's LCDs it seems ;-)

Plus, we're talking about a one-per-village item, not an individual use device, which is why it takes smart cards. Think of expert systems for microcredit loans, medical diagnosis, first aid, farming and the like - deployed with a voice interface in the back of beyond.

It's early stages yet, but give it time.