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India Will Show Its $10 Laptop Prototype
Tech Ticker writes "The Indian Government last year announced the development of a cheap $10 laptop, but was later rectified as $100 laptop. Now the government has announced that HRD minister Arjun Singh will unveil the prototype of a Rs. 500 ($10) computer. The computer is developed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai. No specifications were revealed but DNA, a daily newspaper, has mentioned that it will be small and portable, will feature Wi-Fi, LAN, and expandable memory, and will operate on 2 watts of power."
No specifications were revealed but DNA, a daily newspaper, has mentioned that it will be small and portable, will feature Wi-Fi, LAN, and expandable memory, and will operate on 2 watts of power.
A little critical thinking here: How, exactly, would anyone build that for $10? How much is the cheapest of cheap WiFi adapters at retail? $30? $20? Okay, now how thin are those margins?
I just don't see how they can pull all that off for $10.
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I don't see why Negroponte's OLPC project didn't succeed before. I can buy a netbook on Newegg for 250$... yet a laptop with a quarter of the power and less functionality can't be built for less than 200$ for the OLPC.
It didn't succeed because Negroponte wouldn't let anyone who wanted one buy it. It's that simple. Had he done that he would have sold enough of them to get them into the field and had money to continue development and produce them faster.
So what stopped Negroponte was....Negroponte.
"Bah!" - Dogbert
Forgive me but how reliable could such a cheap product be? I am willing to suspend disbelief but this sounds like good old fashioned BS.
For $10, they can't even afford to put the Vista sticker on these things.
Which, by the way, is a plus. I just bought my daughter a new laptop, and they put more stickers on that thing than Dale Jr's NASCAR ride.
The really nasty thing is that not all of the stickers come off, either. A couple of them I was able to remove cleanly, but the one advertising the processor, and of course the "Vista fer Sure!" sticker seemed pretty immutable.
Hell fire, I'll take half a dozen of those sawbuck laptops right now if they just leave the friggin' stickers off.
You are welcome on my lawn.
You think India is "third world"?
Let me guess, you're an American, right?
You are welcome on my lawn.
Simple. I, as a consumer in the U.S., couldn't simply buy one. I had to use the Buy-one, Give-one program. A much better program would be to let anyone buy them, in any amount without doubling the price. If it was a hit in the retail market, the price would have come down.
It failed before it started.
The G1G1 _doubled_ the price of the laptop for a lone purchaser thus putting it closer to the range of a standard cheap notebook for the average purchaser. This alone was enough to push people away from purchasing it for their own use.
If he had just let people buy them in single units for the stated original cost he would have considerably more money to produce more units and would have likely hit that one million unit mark much much sooner.
He also started the G1G1 program only AFTER people complained they couldn't buy one for themselves. Furthermore he STOPPED the program instead of just letting it run and gaining whatever money he could get out of it.
As for citations do your own damn research - the rest of us have been watching this train wreck since it started.
"Bah!" - Dogbert
China does not have innovation. Unlike Japan, China does not feel the need to rise above simply copying stuff poorly and selling the resulting product for less than the original.
And frankly, to me it seems their strategy is paying off.
Let me guess, you've never been to India. Sure, there are places that are modern and very livable, but you also have many areas with slum conditions unimaginable in Western Europe and North America.
Have you ever seen a river of shit and waste with a plank over it leading to someone's home?
China does not have innovation. Unlike Japan,
Perhaps if you were just a little older, you would remember when all Japan could do was copy Western technology. However today Japan can innovate. Give China another 30 years, and then watch out!
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
the quality will be laughable. Like I always say: cheap, quality, expandable: pick two.
because you know nothing abotu the OLPC project.
your netbook is a toy that if dropped once in the sand or mud it will be dead.
the OLPC is a cheap panasonic toughbook. the OLPC is designed to survive in 3rd world conditions Operate from 0% humidity to 100% humidity in 120 degree heat.
Your netbook is a child's toy compared to what the OLPC was supposed to be. It's like how the top of the line Alienware or Dell XPS is a complete joke to a Toughbook 30.
and it's why a toughbook 30 is $5800.00 for lessthan 1/2 the processing power of the Alienware laptop.
OLPC = toughbook netbook. They cost more plus they dont want to force all cultures to learn english to use it. Unlike all netbooks.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
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Have you ever seen a river of shit and waste with a plank over it leading to someone's home?
India must be bad. I live in a 3rd world country and have never seen rivers of shit.
The only rivers of shit I've seen is in rich coastal towns (where sewage is stored in tanks and sometimes overflows).
The vast majority of their population still live like animals.
As opposed to some other country, where the majority of the population live like plants? I guess you're right: too many USA residents have become couch potatoes.
and it's why a toughbook 30 is $5800.00 for lessthan 1/2 the processing power of the Alienware laptop.
OLPC = toughbook netbook. They cost more plus they dont want to force all cultures to learn english to use it. Unlike all netbooks.
Which is the main reason their main customers the police have been moving away in droves. First it was the CF-48 semi-rugged for $1.6K. After 5 years of that, it was why can't we just use off the shelf Dells. So now we are spending just under 1K for Dell laptops. Generally the CF-48s would last 5 years with only 3 classes of issues. 1 batteries need to be replaced at the 2-3 year mark. 2 a few HD crashes. 3 wrecks total the car. The insurance pays for the cost the laptop in that case. (Trust me we didn't like putting the fully rugged CF-25s back into service after wrecks even though we could.)
Now we've only had the Dells for about a year and a half. We've not had any wrecks or HD crashes yet. We've had a charging issue or two. Usually that's due to the car electrical stuff being wired wrong and not the laptop though.
Trust me, if those $350 minilaptops could run our 3rd party software, we'd seriously think about sticking those in the cars. So cheaper laptops are taking over due to price where fully rugged laptops used to completely monopolize the niche. If we tried mounting one of those minilaptops in a police car the two issues that we will run into are mounts and power chargers for them. That's the two issues we have for any different models of laptops that we chose to stick in there though.
Now, sure netbooks can't hold a candle to real toughbooks, but about the only one's that can really afford real toughbooks are the US military. No one else can afford the price/performance penalty. You were usually 2 generations behind off the shelf laptop tech in a toughbook. This was due to heat build up and being completely sealed.
You imagine that you can build a toughbook for less than $100? Trust me, even your third world folks are more realistic than that. If it were remotely easy for a slight price increase every freaking laptop on the market would have toughbook standard features. It's not a cheap or easy add on though so you rarely see semi-rugged much less rugged laptops.