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Indian Linux PDA For $300
raj2569 writes "Business Line is reporting that kaii (hand in South Indian languages), a Linux PDA to hit the market in Oct. Based on Hitachi SH7727 @ 160MHz, with 64 MB SDRAM, 32 MB Flash, 3.5" Colour TFT (320x240x64k-16 bit) and USB host controller, the device looks cool. The monochrome will be priced at $200"
I am less likely to purchase a PDA at $300 when the website is mostly "Under Construction".
.02
It has great features like MS Office compatible Office Suite (that I have never heard of), ability to Sync w/several OSs, and import info into PIMs like Outlook.
Problem is I didn't see a CF card slot (for wlan and extra storage) and the site itself being pretty much scary.
I would rather spend the money and purchase a new iPaq. Those are rock solid and have a long history of serving their users well.
That's my worthless
It took over 10 mins to load, presumably due to /. effect, so here it is:
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Infomart's Kaii to reach out in Oct
Chitra Phadnis
BANGALORE, Aug. 19
AN Indian kaii (hand) will reach out to touch the global hardware market when Infomart, a Bangalore-based company, releases a PDA (personal digital assistant) to the developer community in October.
The hand-held device named Kaii will be the first PDA to be designed and developed in the country.
In an unusual reversal of roles, the hardware design for the product comes from India and the software comes from US-based Lineo. Kaii is based on Lineo's Embedix, an embedded Linux operating system.
Infomart is in exalted company. Kaii is only the second product of its kind in the world. The first one happens to be the Zaurus PDA from Sharp of Japan, which has recently become commercially available.
The Kaii is pitted against Palm Inc's Palm Pilot and Microsoft's PocketPC.
"We are low on prices and high on features," said Mr Devesh Agarwal, Managing Director, Infomart. While the commercial launch of Kaii may only happen sometime in March next year, he estimated that the monochrome version would be available "under Rs 10,000" and the colour version around Rs 15,000. (Sharp's Zaurus retails for $450.)
The "pocket PC at the price of a Palm" hopes to sell at least 50,000 units next year globally.
It will be more than a consumer device and is being targeted at the enterprise segment, Mr Matthew Harris, President and CEO, Lineo told Business Line.
Infomart sees potential customers in vertical markets such as insurance, where agents may need to carry a portable computing device. Compared to notebooks, which are priced upwards of Rs 70,000, the Kaii becomes a significantly low-cost alternative.
"We have very aggressive power management features," said Mr C.T. Arul, Chief Technology Officer at Infomart and the brain behind Kaii.
The multimedia Kaii is `double byte enabled', which means that it can support any language in the world. Like a laptop, various devices such as printers, keyboards, external hard disk drives and so on can plug into it.
The Lineo-Infomart partnership offers another unique feature - that of mass customisation. Users can choose hardware and components according to their requirements, bringing down prices further.
What's more, the Kaii could become much more than just a PDA. With the same hardware design, the screen can be customised to create wall-mounted information boards at airports and railway stations, according to Mr Agarwal.
It could turn into an Internet information kiosk or even a digital billboard (though a slightly expensive one, he admitted).
The original Kaii fits into the hand and is the same size as Sharp's Zaurus.
Infomart plans to contract-manufacture it through local and global partners. The second version, a wireless-enabled product with GPRS and GSM built into it, is on the cards.
Looks like Trolltech's Qtopia and Jeode Java
Just like what is in my Zaurus. The screenshot and specs confirm it.
Actually, you'd be amazed at the sheer number of people in the middle class in India. Many of the middle class are businessmen or professionals who buy electronics in the range of $100-$1000 (Indian Rs. 5000 to Rs. 50,000). They may not replace the electronic as often (I know several people who are still happy with PII-400s there), but they certainly are able and willing to afford the one time purchases of these items.
A Sharp Zaurus 5500 doesn't sell for much more, being able to find it easily for about $340.
The Zaurus is also on the market today and has been out for a while, so has had a bit of public exposure.
Look at this page, it says there what releases it's using. :-)
HTH
It doesn't seem like it is being developed for the Indian Mass market, read the specs. they haven't even developed Indian language support:
Multi-lingual Standard language is English. German and French can be built-in at no additional cost but will require 32MB flash. Multi-lingual support via optional language packs for Arabic, Chinese (Mainland and Taiwan), German, Greek, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Thai, and Turkish which is available in Open-Source and/or Commercial versions. Indian language support can be developed.
It looks to be marketed to English/French/German speaking countries. And yes I know most people who could afford this in India probably speak/read English, but you would think if you were developing for your own countries market that native language support would at least be considered (then again they speak a whole crapload of languages in India so which one do you do it in?).
Actually, there are enough sham companies with pretty and convincing websites to argue against this reasoning.
Just because they have not spent time on their marketing does not mean their product is vapourware.
It would cost you nothing to wait and see whether their product can live up to its specs before accusing them of being a 'sham'.
Good products do not need fancy marketing (though it helps), and an cheap Indian PDA that actually works well would get enough publicity to compensate for even the poorest web site.
Sig for sale or rent. One previous user. Inquire within.
Actually, there is. Palm announced today a 2MB $100 PDA called 'Zire'.
only if u stay in some remote village. INmy home town bombay, the worst of the worst black outs last for about 2-3 hours and happen very rarely like once or twice a year.
Also in india , most of the schooling is done in english. the regional languages and nationl language hindi is only tought in schools. Once you are in high school or college, preety much most of your education is in english, unless you are studying languages.
Almost all scientific education is in english. So if you meet an indian, chances are that if he is educated, he will know english. If he is not educated, why would he need a PDA for any way ?
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
Hate to be nitpicking, but "kaii" is "hand" in only the South Indian languages of Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil. It's "cheyyi" in Telugu, the fourth (officially recognised) South Indian language.
More than mere navel gazing.
This doesn't seem likely to me. It'd come from China.
The kind of manufacturing jobs that used to go to countries like India are pretty much all moving to China, where ironically, labor protections are weaker. My H1B friends say that many of their buddies from college have gone to southeast china to provide the brains for these operations.
Coincidentally, I was listening to an NPR report on the potential impact of the west coast port lockout on Christmas toy sales. The interviewer asked a toy businessman which countries ship toys to the US retailers like Walmart, Toys-R-Us etc. His answer: "100% from China".
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
> it does not include hindi as a native language(it must be developed).
Who cares about Hindi. I'm of Indian origin, and most of my family back home (especially older folks) can't speak Hindi well (only understand it), but can speak English and Bengali (their native language) proficiantly. In cities like Calcutta (where they're from), English is used in buisnesses as much, if not more than Hindi is.
> considering last time I was there, most of my familys electricity was turned off at 9pm
Heh, it's better in some places than others. At least all villages are close to being electrified (plan is to by 2007).
Are you sure it is only Telegu? It is Tamil too. Perhaps it has the same meaning in Kannada and Malayalam too.
>He thinks $300 is a lot of money
I think you have too much money if you think throwing about $300 isn't a big deal. That's 4 days of an average Joe's salary -- and that's sticking by numbers in the book (the average salary of an American is $29,900 US).
>Obviously shepd is a college student.
True.
>Ergo, he has no important or confidential data.
I run a small business and have up to four clients a week. Ergo, I do have important data.
And the cradle that came with the Palm IIIx lets me save my information. If/when the Palm is destroyed, I'm really not going to sweat it out (except to find another hot deal on a Palm Pilot).
But, if you aren't backing up your PDA, well, I guess you would worry about it. That's why I'm not interested in those $40 Royal organizers -- they just don't have the backup functionality that makes them a worthwhile investment (that and many other problems -- but they do have a built in keyboard).
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
I'm not sure, but this looks to be the same one that was featured in Scientific America... If not, please flame the hell out of me =D According to the article, it is targeted for 3rd world countries. It could be used for a variety of things, including education... It even works for the illiterate! It has a small speaker and will talk to you. Unfortunatly, it runs on AAA batteries, and only lasts a few hours... It is slow, applications are slow, and it takes about 15 seconds to boot. And if it runs idle too long, it is prone to crashing. It's not really targeted for the US tech junkie I guess, but it's still a pretty cool idea. Personally, I'm going to be bugging the hell out of my parents for a Zaurus =D