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State Of The Simputer
2br02b writes "Readers might recall the Simputer (Simple, Inexpensive, Multilingual Computer) whose story Slashdot has been following over the past few years, including its release in October 2002 and most recently the Scientific American article in November. Rediff.com has an informative overview on the status of what was introduced as a low-cost computer for the poor to be sold for under Rs 10000 ($200). Of the two companies that have been given licences, one has yet to put the product on the market while the other is only looking at bulk sales at prices from Rs 12000 to Rs 20000 ($400). Only between 1500 and 2000 Simputers are out on the market."
What's the point when for $200 the "poor" could by a Linux pc from Wal-Mart.
Let's not discount the fact that the per capita GDP in India is $2,540, which would make a $200 PC in India worth $2960.63 in US dollars (US per capita GDP = $37,600).
Some help that is...
Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
You're confusing mechanical or physical efficiency (What you're talking about) with economic efficiency (What I'm talking about) Subsidised, intensive western farming techniques produce huge mountains of food, very cheaply. Far, far cheaper than the labour intensive methods of the third world countries ever could. Even when you add in a profit margin and transport costs to the first world produce, third world farmers cannot compete on price.
The Simputer is a neat idea
but who is going to buy them
if you can already get something cheaper/faster
with more storage?
Here is a 1.2 Duron with a 20 gig drive for $200 US.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?produc
Of course if you have no place to plug it in
then you're hosed.
Not long ago, the guys from encore gave a talk at our local lug on the simputer and from what i could gleam, they now seem to be moving towards customizing the simputer for special sectors like Manufacturing cos., etc., instead of relying too much on it's original purpose to fund themselves. You can find slides from the talks here.
I know ya'll like pictures and here are some (before the final outer design):
More recent picture
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Use of Simputer for Spot Billing of Electricity Metering
More Case
Studies