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Low-Cost Simputer Fails to Win Indians' Interest
prostoalex writes "The Associated Press looks at the Indian low-cost Simputer project and registers it as a failure. Picopeta sold 2,000 units over the past year, while Encore Software sold 2,000 Simputers. Only 10% of the devices were bought for rural areas, which the device was originally designed for. The reason? The companies need to sell quite a few simplistic monochrome devices to allow for the low price tag of $200. Meanwhile, anyone can buy a powerful device with a color screen for $199 from a major vendor."
...that this submission is an advertisement in disguise.
Opinions expressed herein do not reflect the views of Merck & Co., and sorry about the heart attacks.
But if it is for rural villages how do they expect to power these units. And what about dust and computer illiteracy, those things would be bigger obstacle than cost in general.
Move on people nothing funny here.
"Why would I want a computer for my Sims," one man asked. "Two hundred dollars seems like a lot for imaginary people."
You mean a project to create a low-priced commodity failed to compete successfully against something that is already entrenched as a low-priced commodity? That's unpossible!
I wonder what this means for my own startup company. We're going to make a lot of money selling inexpensive versions of pencils. Since people all over the world spend almost nothing at all for pencils, and there's really not much opportunity to improve a pencil, I'm sure my company will be a great success.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
So you can't get support if you import one. Plus I doubt they'll be localised appropriately.
Also, prices vary region to region - the same PDA costs 1/3 more in the UK for instance.
But sir, have you ever tried Dell Brand Computers(TM). They are reliable and priced just right. Thats why I recommend Dell Brand Computers(TM) to all my friends and neighbors even though the little plastic bits may start to fall off after a brief amount of time. I find Dell Brand Computers(TM) to be absolutely rock solid and reliable despite the few times that they have destroyed all of my data or spewed toxic gasses into the air. I just think everyone should know that Dell Brand Computers(TM) are absolutely fabulous and they make me horny! go buy a Dell Brand Computers(TM) now! NOW!! before they're all GONE!!
Starsucks
Now that's the way to make manufactured "aid" systems. Doing the same with computers would be simple.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Not every effort to do a Good Thing is going to work out as one might hope. My hat's off to the people who did this project.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Is anyone actually surprised? Look how Windows XP Starter kit has been doing!
THIS is what they should have sold over there. This is a 16MB Handheld PDA w/Built-in 56K Modem people! And the price (which is the most important thing) is BELOW 25 BUCKS.
Having never been in India, but I did spend a lot of time in third-world Africa, I think the biggest issue is that the third world does not really get a huge gain from computers. The typical third-worlder does not need to write spreadsheets or take digital pics and does not have an urge to contact his buddies over IM. The typical third-worlder does not have a phone (heck hasn't even used one) has no running water or electricity. $200 is a lot of money - might be a whole familie's yearly income. Would you buy a PDA for $50K? Rather spend it on some food/medicine or a new sheet of plastic to put on the roof.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
the Jackito (aka Tactile Digital Assistant). You can't help but wonder why in the world someone would buy one of these devices when you can get so much more hardware for less cost. I guess it's a matter of national pride with these "homebrew" products (Jackito = France / Simputer = India).
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
To me there would be a clear case of market economy here: rich company wants to throw away computers. Poor school in third world desperately needs computers, and is willing to pay an amount > 0.
What is the main bottle neck? Shipping costs? Even for laptops? Security risks with data on old harddisks? It cannot be support or licencing issues, as the locals often surely would be more than willing to use a free OS, which they support themselves.
I can't tell if that $199 Dell can support USB adequately or not - too many PDA devices know how to be a USB slave that can be updated by a computer, but don't know how to be a USB master than can drive printers, modems, etc. But it wouldn't be surprising to see hardware that can do that well in a similar price range - if not now, then wait 3-6 months.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
It's kind of like all of those Internet Appliance things that didn't sell back during the boom, but were fun for hackers to pick up cheap and modify.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
They appear sell it only to verticals, such as the army:
l e_id=2701&cat_id=908
http://www.cxotoday.com/cxo/jsp/article.jsp?artic
So what features were removed -- colour screen? -- it never had one. In any case, the idea was never about eye-candy but simple practical business and educational use, and low power consumption. You, and "prostoalex" are comparing two quite different devices. The article cited does not mention the cheap Dell handhelds he linked to, apparently Prostalex imagines Indians can buy from Dell online and get them delivered by FedEx for the same price he can. Dell India doesn't even sell handhelds.
Linux-based systems like the Simputer have a problem competing against Windows/x86 machines in third world markets.
The problem is that Windows-compatible software is effectively free, due to piracy. And, even if it isn't strongly marketed locally, that software is made more attractive by all the money spent promoting it elsewhere.
the simputer seemed to be the only option for a (low priced) PDA with linux and a USB host port.. I bet there's a lot of early adopters in the 'first world' that are willing to buy the first batch in order to archieve the volume they want..
--
Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!
You minimize the advantage of using standard batteries as though it doesn't matter. That's a big part of the reason I still use a Palm IIIxe and my Tandy Model 102.
MIT's Multimedia lab led by Negroponte is working on a $100 laptop project for poor people that seems to have a fair amount of financial backing. More here
Help fight continental drift.
I'm really not surprised this wasn't a success. A lot of companies blindly go after "emerging markets" without really understanding them. In particular, price isn't as big of a deal as some people think it is. For example, people vastly underestimate the buying power of people in India. Even if everyone was able to afford a computer, what would they do with them? They have no training, no experience, and no support infrastructure.
Interestingly enough, there are some business models that work well. Take the "village PC" model. One person in the village buys a computer (possibly with village assets), supports it, rents out time on it, etc. Everyone in the village, regardless of their technical expertise, benefits from the technology. This model has also worked well for mobile phones.
Last quarter, there were two good talks on technology for emerging and "invisible" markets here at the University of Washington. The first is a talk by Eric Brewer (UC Berkeley) entitled The Case for Technology for Developing Regions. An abstract, video, and MP3 of the talk are available from that site. The other talk was given by John Sherry of Intel's People and Practices Research Group. PowerPoint slides, an abstract, a suggested reading list, a discussion wiki, and more can be found here. I highly encourage you to check these talks out.
Do companies get it yet? Rural or less economically powerful countries don't want watered down computers. They don't want to be treated like second class computer users. They don't want a gimped version of windows when they can pirate a fully functional one. They don't want cute small, yet utterly useless computers. Those who don't have computers now, either cannot afford a several hundred dollar computer, or cannot afford even $200. And those without electicity don't have a need for one.
and some 70% of the country doesn't know what a computer is either or what it is used for
Why is there so much of this drivel posted about this topic?
People in India aren't retarded monkeys, you know. Seriously. They have things called 'cities', and 'automobiles', and even poor rural folks go into the city to sell their shit and see rich urban Indians using their cell phones and laptops.
India is not some sort of medieval wasteland of mindless serfs who run away because they've never seen electricity before - it's just a country with a lot of people who can't afford most luxuries that we take for granted, and quite a few people who can't even afford necessities. They still *see* the technology, and they know it exists.
I think it's similar to the famous Yugo failure. The flawed premise in "cheap computer" or "cheap car" strategy is that people in the market for sub-$5000 car or sub-$200 computer are actually willing to buy them brand new. No, they are not. People in the market for a cheap car will rather go for a 5-year old Ford. People in the market for a cheap computer will either buy something second hand or try to build their own system. Especially that you still have better service options with a 5-year Ford than a brand new Yugo - or a second hand Dell or Compaq than a brand new Simputer.
If they have a TV, they need a computer that'll use THAT as the screen. Remember, Amaericans didn't jump straight from desktop calculators to handhelds... and computers you plug into your TV were a big part of how we got here because they could be built *cheaply*.
India needs Amigas.
No, I'm not kidding. Coolest computer ever. Tremendously capable OS, and you could build one out of three chips cheaper than a Palm III today.
Up to the mid-1990s telecommunications were a state monopoly in Brazil, and a fixed phone cost the equivalent of $7000 in some areas, a cell phone went for about $4000. Today you can get a fixed phone installed for about $15 and a cell phone for $70 in ten installments.
So what, will you ask? How does this help someone who has no running water? Take a typical illiterate single mother living in a slum? It means she can advertise and sell whatever skill she has. It will still be very low-paying jobs, because she has no sophisticated job training, but she can get more for it. Instead of working for one employer at $100/month she can do jobs for different people at $15/day.
Technology is always useful. And technology that enables one to be more productive is always better than handouts. There are many well-meaning people in the rich countries who would better learn this very simple lesson. Give poor people a technology to become more productive workers and they will get their own running water.