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Indian Company Shows Off Sub-$200 Laptop
geo_2677 writes "The Indian company which came out with the Simputer has now come with a
PC which cost roughly INR 10,000; that's just about US $200. The project
was backed by the Indian government R&D department Council of
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)." Geo2677 points out an article on the low-cost computer
at hinduonline.net and another at the Times of India, and writes "The new PC is Linux-based and has office applications, a browser and audio/video capabilities. With a keyboard that can be rolled
up, it looks pretty sleek. A U.S. company is already using it in pilot projects, and many more have shown interest. The Indian government hopes that this will push the PC revolution to the masses. It aimed for home users and small businesses/shops. The PC penetration in India is very low, at a measly 13 million, due to the high costs involved."
It will have no hard disk but will have built-in memory and facility to plug in memory cards for any storage over and above that provided for in the built-in memory. It will not have games. High-speed computing is ruled out. The reasoning is that "while adding to the cost, these are of no use to many users.''
The one link is slashdotted already and the other doesn't say how much memory it has built-in. Yeah, it's sub-$200 until you realize that you have to pay another $150+ for a decent sized memory "stick" (or two or three).
The radio show Marketplace has a http://members.aol.com/adnascar/thepark.html> story about the same machine. Not much details in the story. It doesn't mention linux, but says "it doesn't do windows".
--- http://davidnehme.blogspot.com
A comparable Dell workstation without Windows, and with a regular keyboard, mouse, memory, and 40GB hard drive will cost about $200.
The Marketplace has a story online about this pc.
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
http://www.ncoretech.com/mobilis/index.html with pics and info
First off, not to nitpick but the title of the article is misleading. The laptop is not sub-$200, 10,000INR is $230 http://www.xe.com/ucc/
/ us.html
/ in.html
The PC penetration in India is very low, at a measly 13 million, due to the high costs involved
Although a $230 laptop is great for people in developed nations unfortunately it is still in the realm of high cost for someone in India.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos
The GDP per capita in America - $40,000
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos
GDP per capita in India - $3,100
For someone in America, hell a $2,000 computer would be 1/20th of income, while a $230 computer in India is 1/13th.
Back in my day, I remember having 640x480 and being grateful for such high-resolution graphics.
You are spoiled by today's systems. So am I. I run 1600x1200 every day. But if you run 0x0 every day because you don't have a computer, 640x480 seems beautiful.
Don't forget that people used to do useful work on a 80x25 mono screen without graphics. No photoshop, but good enough to word processing to drive a daisy-wheel printer. This thing is bound to be at least as powerful as a Pentium-120. And a Pentium 120 (with 24MB and a 1.2Gb HD) got me my Master's degree by running Matlab and Protel.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
Here are some good looking pics of the laptop. Im not sure you can call it a laptop though, it looks more like a hybrid version of a pda and laptop. New segment?
h +style/2009-1005_3-5701496.html
Check out http://news.com.com/Photos+Low-cost+computing+wit
This unit was also featured on NPR's Marketplace last night. One of the features that they touted in the interview was the units very low power consumption. It's designed to be run off batteries or unreliable (which I assume means varying voltage) power sources. As they mentioned, this will help many more third-world villages have computer access. Remember even at $200 it's still a substantial amount of a year's salary.
1 0/PM200505102.html for more details
See http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2005/05/
I've tried to buy Encore's Simputer. They're not really into retail or for that matter anything close to "consumer electronics" as we understand the term. They like to sell stuff "vertically" - i.e. they use their Simputer as a platform for specific applications. Look for a link to their handheld military version with GPS etc. Very cool.
I would expect them to do something similar with this device.
You can see a bit of that happening already with the reference to the US company which is planning on using this for some kind of security application.
Also, they are a very Linux centric shop.
why PC "penetration" is really low in India is because a majority of the population has to fight hard every day to *eat*.
The reality is quite different from that created due to the "outsourcing mecca" image. IT and related services employ only about 6 million Indians (out of a 1.1 billion total). IT related products/services are only about 1.5% of the Indian GDP.
It is going to be a long time for the PC to become a part of the average Indian's life.
BP http://www.card-central.com
You're missing a case and power supply. Also in India the power is not as clean and stable as it is in some other countries, so you'd want a UPS too. Laptops basically have a built-in UPS.
This adds at least 3,000 INR, which puts you at around $400. As another poster stated, you can buy a Dell for less than that.
1)"3rd world" is a term that the 3rd world member countries decided to call themselves as an organization of states who needed to have a strong voice on the world stage.
2)India is not part of the 3rd world any longer. they are part of the developing world. that means that they have a stable government and a growing economy.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
I'm sorry, but I didn't see anything in the pictures that would convince me that it was a Windows OS I was looking at.
Built-in: Ethernet, Analog modem, 2x USB2.0 ports, CF-II, SD/MMC, VGA out.
With 2 USB ports, you can add on a lot of other crap.
Even if this doesn't succeed: it is good to see them experimenting.
An article referenced somewhere below indicated the device is using an Intel XScale chip (ARM based), not a Sharp chip.