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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."
The PC penetration in India is very low
That's because it hurts a lot.
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 :).
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
Can you imagine the American version of this? There would be two versions; free + 24.95/month for internet service or the Premium version $400 + 99.95 month including phone, iTunes and a hundred other things you don't need.
India will eat our lunch because they stay focused on the goal instead of stupid glittery Paris Hilton tech like we 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?
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
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."
Yeah - well back in my day we didn't have your fancy monitors. We just had raw leads sticking out of the back of the computer - we would stick'em on our tongues and have to interpret the output bit by bit. Sure it it hurt sometimes - sweating in pain, working a slide rule to figure out the trickier images. But thats the way real men did it. Zero's and Ones my boy - Zeros and ones