Slashdot Mirror
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."
isn't there a better way to provide computing technology to the third-world masses? perhaps someone should start a program for donating old, outdated computers for the good of poorer nations. (if there isn't already one)
Apart from that fact that I have to wonder whatfor people living in some fuckin slum need a computer!
How about to educate themselves and get out of the slum. I came from a poor rural area not realy a slum. My parents overextended their budget buing a C64 for us when I was in junior high. Many people saw that as a waste of money. My parents saw that as an investment. It paid off. I'm a programmer now.
As x approaches total apathy I couldn't care less.
An idea like this sounds fantastic - but is riddled with potential problems.
If they produce something with low capabilities, but a low, low price, then they will be accused of producing underpowered rubbish.
As soon as you start to increase the potential of the platform, the costs start to rise until you have an elitist product that the intended market cannot afford.
There *may* be a happy medium somewhere, but the edvil is in the details of finding it. In the consumerist marketplace we have in the West, production prices are already pushed as low as possible. Squeezing out extra pennies in production is almost impossible. The potential is there though to reduce prices through the marketing and adminitration side of things (pay no fat-cat salaries to the sales & management departments), but then again the product quickly becomes unfashionable and therefore undesirable.
I would love to see such a product to succeed, but it's a hell of an uphill stuggle!
A little planning goes a long way...
If that's where our tech support and software development jobs are going, then their wages will go up, and an increasing number of them will be able to afford the simputer, right? As for those knee-jerkers who say, "let's provide food, water, etc. first" please remember that this is being marketed and sold by a private company that has no obligation to address those sorts of social problems. If anything, increasing a country's tech literacy helps increase the general prosperity
This is such an age old troll that it is not funny. You can actually post it to every article and slashdot and be on topic. Why buy a new iBook when we could stop world hunger? Why upgrade your kernel when you could be in Africa building houses? There is always something better than we can be doing with our time. If you are so altruistic then what are you doing posting on slashdot?
This is a device that is meant to help close the digital divide. You take for granted how much information is at your fingertips and what advantages there are to having that information. If you are looking for a job where are you going to start? Probably on Monster or HotJobs or some other site. Send out some resumes by email that you typed in your word processor. Now take away your computer and try to do the old fashioned way. Type your resume on a typewriter, pay to have it photocopied, flip through a newspaper and walk door to door only to have them reject you because you don't have computer experience.
Not everything is about helping the poorest of the poor. There are a lot more people out there who need some help too.
1. AA batteries, not AAA or fixed rechargeable Li-ION. AAA have a terribly low capacity (~450mAh compared to up to 1900mAh for AA).
2. Cheap and robust external power supply. Batteries are expensive.
2. B&W screen, for godsake. Color is luxury, make a high-contrast large, protected B&W screen that can show decent amounts of information.
3. Little chiclet keyboard that plugs in to a mini-USB slot. Something like the old Spectrum keyboards, cheap, nasty, unbreakable.
That would make it cheaper and more useful. Imagine a computer you'd happily give to an 10-year old, no matter if it breaks.
Lastly, I'd add bluetooth because it's a tiny extra cost, only a few $, and provides unbreakable networking and connectivity better than any physical connection, and make the whole thing run on a stripped-down embedded Linux.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
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 forgot the word "subsidised".
For example: If you give poor farmers in Africa, India, ... computers, they could use them to improve there farming and harvest more food or to make a better profit selling their harvest.
3rd world farmers suffer more from trade barriers, dumping by the US and Europe, beauracracy and wars than a lack of efficiency
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This sig is inoffensive.
"Poor people are generally poor because they are either dumb, lazy, or both"
What a clueless moron you are. That may well be true in the affluent west where if you work hard
you can better yourself but in some countries the children don't get a chance to be educated before they're out in the fields helping their parents
grow food or even supporting their brothers and sisters after their parents have died from disease or war!
"They just want the government to hand them welfare and be done with it. "
Yeah , the welfare systems in africa and india are known to be the best in the world right!
Jesus , get a clue you insular dick!
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.