India's $35 7-Inch Android Tablet To Hit In January

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India's $35 7-Inch Android Tablet To Hit In January

Posted by samzenpus on Saturday September 11, 2010 @11:57PM from the little-machine-little-price dept.

indogiree writes "Engadget reports that India has just awarded the manufacturing contract to HCL Technologies. The first shipment will supposedly only contain the 7-inch model and is set to arrive on January 10. It's unclear if the $35 price has stuck or whether India's been successful in plans to drive the price down to $10 eventually with the help of large orders and government subsidies. HCL Technologies plans to initially produce 100,000 units. Among the key features of this India-based tablet include 2GB of RAM, web-conferencing, PDF reader, unzip, WiFi, camera and USB connectivity."

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Production cost by iONiUM · 2010-09-12 00:00 · Score: 5, Interesting

I'd really like to know what the true production cost of this tablet is. If it's low enough that with a few subsidies from the government they can get it down to $35 or even $10, then it leads me to believe other tablets are severely overpriced for no reason.
If they are indeed overpriced, then why doesn't 1 competitor just come in with a ridiculously low price and suck up all the "cheap" market? This applies to phones as well, which are also very expensive (though we don't often notice due to hardware upgrades from the carriers).
1. Re:Production cost by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-12 00:37 · Score: 1, Interesting
  
  You think? Apple sells to the latte sipping metrosexual poseur who pays for a brand. Apple is a company that repackages other people's ideas and technological advances and sticks a logo on it, and sells it in lot of pretty colours. The idea that Apple is a technology company is a total fallacy.
2. Re:Production cost by cmdr_tofu · 2010-09-12 01:21 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Wikipedia says the Tata Nano started around $2200. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Nano
  I wouldn't want that car (or any car) in Delhi, but for rainy days when I don't feel like bicycling to work in New England, I think it would be grand. Plus the rain might help put out the spontaneous combustion hahaha.
3. Re:Production cost by nbharatvarma · 2010-09-12 01:28 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  This appears to be an initiative by the government to push technology to the masses. I doubt the tablet (if it is not vaporware) will be available at this price for everyone. They will probably subsidize these devices to certain sections of the society. We have something called a Ration Card which is given based on your economic status. You can use that to get a subsidy on food, oil etc. I am assuming that subsidy on the tablet would be based on something like that.
  
  India probably has the highest growth in terms of mobile devices purchased. The cheapest Nokia mobile set here costs USD 25 and we have Indian mobile companies now (Lava, MicroMax, Karbonn) who are aiming to provide mobiles for USD 10 in 2011. I have seen beggars with mobile phones. That's how low the entry-barrier is, in India. These mobiles do their job well.
  
  India also has a very good mobile coverage. The areas which are not covered by private providers are covered by the state-owned BSNL. 3G services are going to get rolled out sometime towards the end of 2010.
  
  The government wishes to push technology to masses. This is a good step in that direction.
  
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  ... and I shall strike upon thee with great vegeance, furious anger and a slightly positive karma.
4. Re:Production cost by sensationull · 2010-09-12 02:59 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Also you're shooting yourself with low profit margins - look at Motorola and Nokia nowadays - they were selling decent phones a while ago and decided to go for the low hanging fruit of cheap phones. That didn't leave enough focus/resources on the smartphones.
  And thats why Nokia has large market penitration in "the rest of the world", the US is the only one where they skipped out on because of wanting to many rights for the end users when it came to carrier deals. All of Apples 'inovation' is based on other peoples work (Nokia and others for the actual ability to work as a phone), they are really just skilled collage makers pasting together technologies that other people have made into their own product.
5. Re:Production cost by freedom_india · 2010-09-12 12:27 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  and this from a country that bought Yugo by the thousands...
  
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  "Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
Re:Sometimes Apple is cheaper by obarthelemy · 2010-09-12 01:23 · Score: 2, Interesting

Congratz, you're snap bang at the core of Apple's market: people who can't tell a phone from an MP3 player.
It comes with peach-colored sleeves, too !

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The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
Re:Outship It to Me by Doc+Ruby · 2010-09-12 04:01 · Score: 1, Interesting

Some day "shipping" will come to India, and we will be able to send a package from the country without being there personally. Just like people used to do with drugs, before India's Customs agencies got their import/export perfect under the control of law and order.

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make install -not war