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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."
after watching a few "internet PC's" drop off the face of the earth due to the fact that it was $300 and all it did was internet, it would be interesting to see how well this actual PC would end up doing. $200 for basically something that can do work processing, internet, music?(not sure since they didnt specify what they mean by audio...) but still. thats a hell of a deal. and big surprise.. it came from india :).
Which picture show it "clearly running" windows? The one mentioned in the article doesn't even have a hard drive. These look more like large PDAs to me than what we regularly think a laptop is. But if it works and people can afford it, I hope it goes well.
"but will have built-in memory"
More than likely it has some built in CF memory or something like that. Even if it is only 512MB...for Word docs and web browsing how much do you need? I would bet the apps are in some form of flash memory or something (similar to a PDA) so no worries there.
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That's certainly interesting, but the screen (with a size of 7,5") really seems a bit small. I understand that you can't attach a huge screen to a laptop and still be able to charge a low price like that, but I'm not sure whether this is big enough to actually use the thing as a real computer instead of as a better PDA or cell phone.
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
Even if it is only 512MB...for Word docs and web browsing how much do you need?
Well, if you had read the non-slashdotted article:
Vinay L. Deshpande, chairman and chief executive officer of Encore Software, told a press conference the system would have the essential features of a conventional personal computer: everyday applications such as word processing, spreadsheet, personal information manager, e-mail and web-browser. It will play music and movies, have text-to-speech conversion facility and built-in local-language support.
Movies and music on 512MB? Get serious. As I said, you will likely be shelling out 150+ for memory. I found it VERY suspicious that they were touting the price when they aren't including any storage space.
$199 doesn't impress me with slow specs and no storage.
A very basic computer needs very little memory. I've got some older machines that are more than functional (for basic office work) that have only 16 MB of RAM and 200 MB of disk space. They're fine for word processing, spreadsheets, small databases, and email. I can even use the web, although the high level of graphics and gratuitous formatting on many websites makes it a slow experience.
Just because new machines need 1 GB RAM and 60 GB HDs, doesn't mean you can do anything with 1/10 or even 1/100 of the memory of a modern PC.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
While 512MB isn't gonna work for movies, it is fine for music. I have a 512MB iPod Shuffle and love it. For features like that they probably intend for you to sync it with a desktop.
If you are someone with NO computer at all in India right now do you really think no movie/music support is the end of the world?
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If you are someone with NO computer at all in India right now do you really think no movie/music support is the end of the world?
Then why tout it as a feature and not mention the built-in storage while praising the fact that it is under the $200 pricepoint.
It is worth pointing out that you can stream movies without much hard drive space at all. That means you could play a DVD/VCD, or you could watch streaming media on the internet. You just couldn't save large movies on the hard drive.
in india ?
Please remember we are talking about India here. Their broadband penetration is low, their analog service sucks, and many people share those crappy analog lines between multiple computers.
Why should they want to? You assume that they need Excel because it's your point of reference and de-facto standard in the US. But this cheap device is aimed at people who don't have a computer now, clearly even a slow comp is way better than none. Consequently, any spreadsheet is better than counting on a sheet of paper and that's the alternative for the target users of these devices.
We already have the Mac Mini, a computer that includes neither a keyboard nor a mouse yet sells for $200 more than comparable (albeit larger) PCs that include both. You can spin anything nowadays.
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Most people can't do this, usually out of ignorance.
Ignorance? So, can you do brain surgery? If you say no, do I get to call you ignorant, as well?
I'll admit that assembling a basic computer isn't really a brain straining activity. However, you can't just go out and buy whatever parts cost the cheapest. What type of RAM do you need? Is the price difference between a 2.3 and a 2.5 GHz processor worth the higher one?
Even with the mouse, you have so many options. Wireless? Optical? Two button? Four? Eight? For the plebians, it's easy to get get confused. If someone buys the parts for them and gives them a small picture book detailing installation, then, yeah, most anyone could probably do it. Would they be able to run Linux on it? Doubtfully.
And I'm saying this considering the American population, where most people, even if they don't own their own computer, have used one to some degree at some point in their life. In India, you have a much larger group of people who may have seen a computer from afar once in their life. I bet most of those 13 million computers come from outsourced helpdesk setups, basic "You get this question, you give this answer" computers (like what's used in telemarketing places) by Microsoft and what have you.
Yammering that these people should be able to set up a computer like you or I can makes you ignorant, not them.
Where the hell is my coffee.
Hmm, I think you could build a very low end system using parts from online retailers for around $200, although I haven't priced it out in a while. I mean things have just gotten absurdly cheap, like $25 motherboards and so forth.
It wouldn't be high end, but it would have a hard disk and be a "real computer".
It's funny you mention that old Tandy laptop, because I was thinking something similar myself!
I don't own one of those myself, but I remember their "golden age" of popularity. A *good* number of news reporters carried one with them to write all of their articles on while traveling.
This very well might be just what people over in India need to get into the "computer revolution". But as you've pointed out, it seems that keeping it real basic/simple is the way MOST of us got started.
I used computers for years before ever considering the purchase of a hard drive for one of them! For a long time, I couldn't even imagine possessing enough code to need something that big to store it on! When you create a computer that has all of its basic applications and functionality built into ROM memory, you create a framework... boundaries if you will, on what that particular computer is *meant* to do. As long as you've got the "sweet spot" of what folks need to get done contained in that "framework" and the price is right, you probably have yourself a very useful little tool.
India's focus on IT is really starting to pay back the dividends... The problem now is that their focus has to start to shift to quality.
Although they are becoming a threat for people in NA (in terms of job competition) I wonder how long NA customers can go with the quality issues in the Indian IT market and work force. Anyone who's dealt with an outsourced call center in India will certainly relate to that
I'm by no means flaming India, in fact, I'm pretty amazed at how far they went and wish them all the best; but I believe unless they shift to the next gear (Quality) they will fall as fast as they climbed up..
My 0.2c..The article available at the attached URL indicates that the memory size is 128MB. The point is that AT THE PRESENT TIME, the low-income segment of the population has no easy way to acquire a computer or, after acquiring it, pay for maintenance, power, and upgrades. So a sturdy, no-frills machine is best. As time goes by, their needs will rise and the cost of technology will drop and there will still be a happy intersection of these two graphs. Think of TV: in the 1970s Indians were introduced to black-and-white models and Lucy re-runs. I remember, living then in India, marvelling at a color TV at an international trade show in Delhi in Jan. 1981. Today such things are commonplace in high quality, and the infrastructure (really cheap cable service) has expanded to satisfy the demands. So this sort of thing is good for the common person. http://news.com.com/Indian+firm+unveils+low-cost+L inux-based+PCs/2100-1042_3-5701552.html?tag=nl
Misinterpretation of statistics. GDP per capita in India is $3,100 but what is the standard deviation? Here's a badly formatted PDF with more detailed numbers. You can see that roughly 30 million households have an income of $5000 or more. If they all bought pc's it would more than double the penetration in India.
Not to mention that PC penetration here did not occur last week, when computers were 1/20th of income. Penetration in the U.S. happened more than 10 years ago, when PC's were $3-4k and GDP was ~$25k.
There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
Because a laptop with a reasonable battery and a good powersupply will let you work on sub standard power grid....
Your desktop pc is going crazy as soon as the ac outlet produces something funny.
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Well, look at it this way: stuff like this happened from day zero. Computing power keeps increasing up to a point where there is a viable market for something less powerful but cheaper or smaller.
That's how we got, for example, mini-computers and then micro-computers.
Each of those was awfully under-powered when they appeared. E.g., early minis were _very_ under-powered. Don't think "DEC Vax", think 8 or 12 bit machines that had all the computing power of a C64 or less. E.g., the original IBM PC was a pretty shitty machine, compared to a Vax, and the 8 bit CP/M machines were doubly so. Yet they were a very valid market.
Sure, a lot of companies would have preferred a big mainframe instead of a mini, and they sure could think of applications that would have run better on a big mainframe, but then again a mini was cheaper and enough.
Sometime later, sure, most of us would have preferred a personal mini near the desk instead of a micro-computer on the desk. I mean, again, have you used an 8080 CP/M machine with a 8" floppy back then? Ooer, those were slow. Running some database program off a floppy would give any programmer nowadays permanent trauma. But then again, noone could afford to give everyone a mini. So the micro-computer had to do.
My gut feeling is that the same _could_ work for this kind of machines. If they're not crippled to the point of being useless, which was the mistake of other cheap PC attempts, it could find a niche.
Sure, the users _will_ very much prefer a PC that can play games and run Excel instead, but given enough economic incentive some will settle for these instead.
There are countries for which $200 is a month's pay (or in some cases a _year's_ pay), and you have about a 1/10 of that left after rent and food. So buying a high end gaming PC for $1000 would pretty much mean someone's lifetime savings. I'm guessing they'll settle for the $200 PC instead.
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"Which picture show it "clearly running" windows?"
The first link shows a guy holding up a machine with a blue taskbar. However, it doesn't APPEAR* to have the telltale green splotch on it that says "START" on it.
* I said 'appear' because there's nothing 'clear' about what OS that machine is running. Heck, it's hard to tell from the photo that these things have built in speakers.
"Derp de derp."
This is a system for people who need email, productivity, etc; "meat and potatoes" stuff. I would have thought it pretty obvious that with the lack of hard drive and limited memory, we wouldn't be having this discussion. But, apparently not. This isn't a device you're going to see some technophile in the subway attaching his little white iPod earbuds to, so he can jam his iTunes on the way to work-- it's just a productivity machine, designed so low-income families/individuals can have *something* to stay connected and productive with.
I don't moderate anymore. Karma penalty for 90% fair mods? Can I mod that unfair?
My prediction is that all attempts at selling what most people would consider inferior computers will not work. Not in India nor in any other developing country.
What many people from rich countries do not realize, is that people in countries like India have a different set of priorities. If you go to any slum you will notice that even though housing is terrible, plumbing is non-existent, and garbage is strewn everywhere, many people own televisions, refrigerators, radios, cell phones, etc.
I don't see any reason why computer ownership will be an exception to the rule. Poor people will want their kids to have the same computers as rich people do (perhaps with less RAM, smaller monitor, etc), and will not be interested in buying a computer designed for the poor.
One more note... a lot of statistics about computer users in developing countries are very misleading. For example, the CIA claims that there are about 18.4 million Internet users in India, but if you travel to any Indian city you will see Internet cafes everywhere, all crowded with people. There may be 18.4 million subscribers to Internet services, but the actual number of individuals with Hotmail/Yahoo/Rediff accounts is probably a lot higher, perhaps even 10 times higher.
$199 doesn't impress me with slow specs and no storage.
Does it let me browse the Internet? Yes.
Does it run linux? Yes.
Does it have a good battery life? Yes.
Is it cheap? Yes.
Is it portable? Yes.
Do 1Gb USB keys cost next to nothing? Yes.
I'd snatch one up at the first chance I got.
My AthlonXP 1700 desktop is 84% idle with a load average of 0.36 0.39 0.40, I dont think I'd have a problem if this thing was 100-200Mhz to be honest. Oh, I'm currently running Overnet (edonkey2k), Konqueror, XMMS playing MP3s, Abiword, Firefox, Eterm, a transparent xdaliclock, and Enlightenment 16 with lots of eye candy turned on.