Slashdot Mirror
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"
and not an artists conception would be nice...
I fail to see how people in India can afford to drop 200(or 300 if you read the title of the article) on a PDA, considering last time I was there, most of my familys electricity was turned off at 9pm. And while the website claims to be a low cost alternative for India and others, it does not include hindi as a native language(it must be developed).
Look out U.S./Canada/Japan! Is this the first of a flood of new products to come out of India?
Luckily for me, I believe in capitalism, and I say the more the merrier.
Mike van Lammeren
It will challenge your head, your brain, and your mind.
According to the article, the monochrome version will be available for "under Rs 10,000" and the colour version around Rs 15,000. We are given in the Slashdot post the information about the Monochrome Version being $200 us.
.02
.02 = 300
:-)
Therefore:
Monochrome = 10,000
Color = 15,000
Or, if:
Monochrome = 10,000 x Y = $200
then Y =
And
Color = 15,000 x
So the color version of this handheld will be around $300 US.
-S
We Apprentice Developers and Designers
I wouldn't consider buying a PDA like this from a company who has 75% of the pages on their site "under construction" (animated gif and all) with pictures of their product being computer rendered 3-D models.
Come on people! Whether this is a real product or not, it doesn't look to me like it has a cold chance in hell of taking off, the company just doesn't look like they have their act together properly. The "Agenda" had their act together a whole lot more than this company and the product went nowhere.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
Am I alone in thinking that there have been an excessive number of racist and stereotypical views posted on this story? Is it a typical American perception of the indians that they all smell of curry and don't know how to wash? If I made a comment like that in a public setting here in Britain, for example in the workplace, I'm sure I would be subjected to disciplinary action, and if anything like that was published, I'm sure someone would try and have me prosecuted. Ok, I know that immigration from india to america is less than immigration from india to britain, and so there is a larger proportion of indians in our population, but this doesn't make it right, does it?
Given that they want to keep costs down I would have thought that choosing ogg vorbis as the sound format rather that mp3 would have been a wise idea, but there goes!
When you make a product in a developing country, with such cheap labor and parts, them can certainly make a cheap product. Now ask, what $300 means for the Indian market and most will say "way too expensive".
1) The picture is computer generated
2) Linux on the Kaii is under construction? I could understand that but
3) Java on the Kaii are under construction? Worse still
4) Application section is under construction...not to mention
5) Peripheral Information is also under construction
6) and most important...Developer program is also under construction....
3) and 6) is unacceptable for developers. Yopy and Nokia 92x0 release developers programs and emulators/developers model at least half a year before final launch. Unless they are as big as Microsoft which could single-handedly create a market for their products, even big corp like Nokia need a developer community to survive.
I think common handheld developers will see that this PDA is not even existed! This propaganda could be used to seek VC money and publicity, but it can't fool us geeks....can it?
Actually, India had running water several thousand years before it was introduced in Europe.