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

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."

Comments

Production cost

[iONiUM]

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).

Re:Production cost

[nbharatvarma]

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.