Low-Cost Indian Tablet Project Falls To Corruption

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Low-Cost Indian Tablet Project Falls To Corruption

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday May 6, 2012 @01:18AM from the failure-to-launch dept.

symbolset writes "The first Aakash tablet proposed for India schools has failed. Datawind managed to deliver the $45 Android tablet as reported here previously, but suffering a breach in faith by both their contract manufacturer and the accepting agency in India had to put the project on hold. Facing a loss in revenue it's turning into a disaster for the small Canadian company as they are now proving unable to deliver both the Aakash tablet and the parallel retail product. Senior executives have begun to flee. The company has presold a great many tablets, and delivery failure reports are beginning to mount. Is this the Phantom console of this decade?"

92 of 144 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Money first by AG+the+other · 2012-05-06 01:23 · Score: 1, Funny

Get the money first and then manufacture the product.

--
Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro
1. Re:Money first by biohazard35 · 2012-05-06 01:46 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  What? Google had nothing to do with this failure other than making the OS. Just because they make Android doesn't mean they are responsible for every android device that is made. That is like saying Microsoft is at fault if the motherboard of your new computer fails.
2. Re:Money first by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-06 01:47 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Wtf does Google have anything to do with manufacturing and government requirements issues? Android is software, all the problem are hardware. If you are gonna blindly bash Google, at least keep it relevant unless this is an attempt to troll.
  For those of you who are to lazy to RTFA.
  1) Government wants $45 laptop to have military grade ruggedness (of which was not stated until late into the game). Quote from the article, ' The criteria included being able to withstand four inches of rain, enduring shock tests when “mounted in a vehicle,” and when subject to “sudden acceleration, braking, or turning while transporting the units.” ' Normally I wouldn't consider this that bad but for a $45 laptop, I can definitely see an issue.
  2) The manufacturer "signed an agreement with I.I.T. Rajasthan to manufacture what Mr. Tuli said he believes is a rival low-cost tablet." This side seems to be a mess of Corporate political issues. You can read the article for more on this yourself.
3. Re:Money first by Kotakee · 2012-05-06 02:05 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  Likewise, most bluescreens on Windows are/were caused by hardware issues. Yet people on slashdot make fun of Microsoft about that.
4. Re:Money first by MickyTheIdiot · 2012-05-06 02:18 · Score: 2
  
  This is the worst fucking troll on Slashdot since "think about your breathing."
5. Re:Money first by MickyTheIdiot · 2012-05-06 02:26 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Bad analogy. BSOD is a software issue because the OS didn't trap the hardware failure and crashed.
  The same thing happens on Linux but at a MUCH smaller frequecy. Bad hardware (except for the processor which runs the show) shouldn't crash your system.
6. Re:Money first by Kneo24 · 2012-05-06 02:40 · Score: 1
  
  Really? The people I've talked too about cellphones wouldn't know much of a difference between Android phones and an iPhone beyond that the iPhone is really popular.
7. Re:Money first by Shoten · 2012-05-06 02:43 · Score: 2
  
  You clearly haven't done business in India. "Manufacture the product" is where things went off the rails here, even as stated by the summary: "but suffering a breach in faith by both their contract manufacturer and the accepting agency in India had to put the project on hold." Corruption is most often found in the implementation phase of things, because at that point you're committed to the bridge/road/product/building/whatever and the person demanding a bribe understands this. It's far easier to simply give back money during a fundraising period than it is to cancel a project halfway through. And when you really think about it, this is a manifestation of 'taking the high road,' by not doing whatever you can to come up with extra cash to pay off the corrupt, but instead canceling the project. Not the nicest high road to take, but such is life.
  
  --
  
  For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
8. Re:Money first by cjjjer · 2012-05-06 02:44 · Score: 1
  
  The same thing happens on Linux but at a MUCH smaller frequecy.
  [citation needed]
9. Re:Money first by HornWumpus · 2012-05-06 02:51 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Hate to tell you. Linux doesn't have a microkernel. Hardware/driver failures crash the system (Kernel panic).
  Correct attribution of failures is a major feature of microkernels.
  That said hybrid kernels (including windows) do OK except the components that run in kernel (mostly video). Blue screens are much less frequent then they used to be.
  
  --
  John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
10. Re:Money first by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-06 02:57 · Score: 1
  
  Here! Here! Troll and idiot all rolled up in one.
11. Re:Money first by mug+funky · 2012-05-06 03:07 · Score: 1
  
  kotakee or katakee?
  shill is a shill shill with shills in it's shill.
12. Re:Money first by MightyMartian · 2012-05-06 03:29 · Score: 1
  
  In other words you're an ignoramus spouting off about what you don't know.
  Or are you just that MS shill?
  
  --
  The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
13. Re:Money first by MightyMartian · 2012-05-06 03:31 · Score: 1
  
  Vista got blamed because Microsoft and Intel colluded to get substandard video hardware rated as "Vista Ready".
  
  --
  The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
14. Re:Money first by hairyfeet · 2012-05-06 03:45 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Answer? Make it in China and don't tell them about any deals! From the looks of it it was the Indian government with its head up its ass, it kept changing the specs with finally asking for specs similar to USA milspec (which as anybody knows costs thousands per unit because of how much abuse they can take. They ARE built for the battlefield after all) while still expecting them to keep the price low enough you could practically give them away...ohh AND they wanted double the battery AND a doubling of speed on the CPU! Hell why not ask for a pony to bring the stars of the last porn convention to blow you while you are at it?
  The moral of this story is FUCK THE GOVERNMENTS and instead simply make as good a product as you can to fit a price point. if this guy can crank out sub $80 pads that are actually pleasant to use? Then he WILL find a market for them. Hell if it'll play SD video at whatever resolution the screen is I'll take 4 please. But by dealing with governments unless you are a "good old boy" that knows their games and whom to slip the envelope of money to you aren't gonna win friend, that is just the way it is.
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
15. Re:Money first by hairyfeet · 2012-05-06 04:03 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It can't, not anymore. Its damned near impossible to BSOD a Windows 7 system with a bad driver, it will just silently kill and restart the driver (as a system should) and make a little note in Action Center about it. And while your experience may vary I had a HELL of a lot bigger time with crashing X Server than I ever did with BSODs. it especially didn't seem to like having a video playing while surfing to pages that may have an embedded video or surfing pages with possible embedded video while playing tunes in the background. Hell Firefox won't allow hardware acceleration in Linux because X Drivers are buggy and they don't want to be blamed for X crashes.
  As for TFA it has nothing to do with Android and everything to do with shitty governments wanting a pie in the sky. A $45 tablet and they want milspec? yeah and I want my Alyson Hannigan sexbot for $50 and a pack of Lucky Strikes and now we're both disappointed, while certain things ARE inflated one thing that isn't is how damned expensive it is to make electronics that can take milspec abuse. The reason a toughbook is so damned expensive is because of the amount of abuse it can take and you just can't get the materials to absorb that much punishment for $50, just not gonna happen. And they want double battery life and double CPU for the same price? Again the reason the price was so low was precisely BECAUSE it was using chips not in high demand such as its ARM 11 366MHz CPU. You want something that is going in more high dollar cell phones you have to pay a more high dollar price, that's reality. What it sounds like they are wanting is a milspec iPad for $50 and are using that as an excuse to give one of their buddies the contract who will of course probably come out with something worse than what this guy is offering so they can pocket more profit after bribing officials.
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
16. Re:Money first by marcosdumay · 2012-05-06 04:28 · Score: 1
  
  The moral of this story is FUCK THE GOVERNMENTS and instead simply make as good a product as you can to fit a price point.
  To put that lesson in a more educative way, when you want to make the life of people better, if you need money, you'd better get the money directly from them, and not use the government as a proxy.
  
  --
  Rethinking email
17. Re:Money first by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-06 04:47 · Score: 1
  
  [citation needed]
  [brain needed]
  If you don't know why this is +5 Insightful and +5 Informative, then you completely validated the entire point of this post.
  Learn when "citation needed" is appropriate for use. Here's a hint, when you use in inappropriate places, such as here or in other less formal circles, you sound like a complete fucking idiot because you're demanding information but are too stupid and/or lazy to realize your means of prompting additional information is completely inappropriate. Furthermore, "citation needed" has become to mean, "fuck you, prove it." To wit I say, no, fuck you, you lazy, egotistical moron.
  And to address your specific point, while I'm not aware of any specific study, it has been widely accepted for over a decade that Linux has had vastly superior reliability and uptime than Windows servers. If for no other reason than thread-centric programming requires higher fragmentation and resource locking constraints. There have been studies which back this up, not to mention, its extremely easy to deduce if one knows much of concurrent programming issues. All of which is why defacto doctrine requires periodic reboots of Windows boxes (ior atleast application restarts) which does not hold true for Linux.
  So in a nut shell, what did we learn? One, we learned you're an idiot. Two, we learned that Linux has a long history of longer uptimes than Windows. Three, we learned resource utilization when contrasting process vs thread centric leans poorly toward threaded environments for high uptime. And lastly, we learned that Linux has a well deserved reputation for not crashing, unlike Windows.
  Now, if you want to argue Window's reputation for crashing is systemic of poor quality third party drivers, go for it. But it doesn't change that Windows as a whole has acquired a justly deserved poor reputation for uptime and its corresponding blue screen of death over the last several decades.
  So to bring it full circle, "brain needed", seemly infinitely more approprite in response to your post, than does your post in kind.
18. Re:Money first by mspohr · 2012-05-06 05:54 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  I finally gave up supporting my Mom's old Vista computer (marginal hardware) and installed Ubuntu. Everything works great (including sound and WiFi) with standard install. Performance is snappy. I can also support here using Remote Desktop (not needed so far).
  
  --
  I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
19. Re:Money first by KDEWolf · 2012-05-06 06:25 · Score: 2
  
  It doesn't sound as bad when people call it Kickstarter.
20. Re:Money first by MacGyver2210 · 2012-05-06 06:42 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Actually, Android recently surpassed iOS as the primary(most popular) cell phone platform(I had no idea Symbian was on top prior to this)..
  http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/14693_Q1_2012_Android_OS_installed_b.php
  So technically, it's the Android phone which is really popular. I suppose it doesn't hurt that there are a bazillion different staged versions of Android out there on all sorts of devices, versus ~5 versions of iOS on a very limited range of products.
  Also, as MacOS is still ~27% behind Windows as the most popular OS, and only 7% above Linux OS popularity, they really aren't as ubiquitous as people make them seem. There is a lot of hype, but significantly less actual progress for the OS/equipment beyond standard-use consumers.
  
  --
  If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
21. Re:Money first by couchslug · 2012-05-06 07:29 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  "and I want my Alyson Hannigan sexbot for $50 and a pack of Lucky Strikes and now we're both disappointed"
  Too greedy. I'd be willing to forego the cigarettes.
  
  --
  "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
22. Re:Money first by jo_ham · 2012-05-06 08:01 · Score: 1
  
  I got into a nasty situation with Vista where it would crash on startup due to some driver and instead of giving me useful information it simply immediately restarted Windows and I got stuck in a loop. I think this was an exception to the rule though - I have hardly ever seen any serious crashes on Windows in the post-Vista (and even in the late-Vista) era. It's pretty stable now, even in the presence of crash-prone drivers.
23. Re:Money first by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-06 09:01 · Score: 1
  
  Not so fast, you lowlife cocksucker! "citation needed" is ALSO a way to state that a person disagrees with a generally accepted opinion.
  
  [citation needed]
24. Re:Money first by emt377 · 2012-05-06 10:32 · Score: 1
  
  As for TFA it has nothing to do with Android and everything to do with shitty governments wanting a pie in the sky.
  Or a corrupt government that comes up with ridiculous requirements to eliminate everyone, except one local source from of the bidding process.
25. Re:Money first by hairyfeet · 2012-05-06 11:43 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I shouldn't answer an AC but since I actually know the answer to that one WTF I'll go ahead. the reason a certain ATI driver shits itself on Windows is a royally fucked .NET update put out by MSFT. It doesn't seem to affect other software but the ATI driver expects .NET to behave a certain way and when that update is applied it don't so ur fucked.
  The way to fix this is with Revo Uninstaller since MSFT thinks .NET is so damned wonderful they never bothered coming up with a way to cleanly uninstall the bitch. remove ALL patches related to .NET followed by .NET itself and then install the latest version ONLY, don't take some old version and patch up to current. Finally remove and re-install the ATI driver and it will behave itself. Even better once you have removed .NET install the latest AMD driver (unless you are stuck with some legacy cards, then follow the first suggestion) which thankfully they removed all the .NET dependencies and went with Visual C++ instead.
  But this is a classic example of what happens when a company bases a core component of one of their major pieces of software on something they have ZERO control over. I only hope the moron that decided to base the drivers on .NET of all things got himself a pink slip when they were bought by AMD because that was a seriously dumbass move.
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
26. Re:Money first by pete6677 · 2012-05-06 13:09 · Score: 1
  
  You are a stroke.
27. Re:Money first by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-06 18:31 · Score: 1
  
  "and I want my Alyson Hannigan sexbot for $50 and a pack of Lucky Strikes and now we're both disappointed"
  Too greedy. I'd be willing to forego the cigarettes.
  Not so! A well-known result of using the Alyson Hannigan sexbot is the uncontrollable need to light one up and sigh contentedly afterward. If you don't include the smokes, it becomes a hidden tax on Alyson Hannigan sexbots.
  I thought everyone knew this.
  Excuse me, I feel the urge to light up now....
28. Re:Money first by rastilin · 2012-05-06 19:22 · Score: 2
  
  When the customer starts changing the contract, the proper answer is always "No". It's tempting to think that they can only change their minds once. They can change their minds over and over until you get driven out of business, especially if they think they can buy your product directly from the manufacturer, which is now a local company. If your only contribution is capital and an idea, you've made yourself irrelevant once the product hits the production stage. Especially if the buyer and the manufacturer are in the same place, while you are on the other side of the world. This is something anyone could have told them, if they'd bothered to ask around. It's not like this sort of thing never happens, in China it's considered fairly common.
  They would have been much better off doing the production and development locally, where they can have constant dialogue with a manufacturer that they trust. Preferably because someone on their team had worked with them before. It would then be much easier for them to say "No" to a changed contract, and sell their product directly to their targets, either to private schools in India or to other places worldwide.
  
  --
  How do you kill that which has no life?
29. Re:Money first by ozmanjusri · 2012-05-06 19:53 · Score: 2
  
  Or are you just that MS shill?
  Hard to say who's a shill and who's just trolling these days. Whatever this one's motivation, between shills and trolls, they've just about managed to kill Slashdot as a worthwhile site to discuss interesting topics.
  In this instance, the shills probably had good motivation to prevent open discussion. Datawind may have succeeded in making a cheap tablet, but they were by no means the only one. Indian (and other buyers) are spoilt for choice at the bottom of the market, with dozens of vendors selling tablets at or below the $45 mark http://www.aliexpress.com/category/100005062/tablet-pcs.html?pvId=48-350286%2C200000563-200002770&SortType=price_asc&SortType=y.
  I've obtained a few of these, and they're actually quite usable. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see something similar in blister-packs on supermarket shelves soon.
  Handheld computing is VERY rapidly becoming a commodity, with competition driving prices down and features up. Companies who've bet heavily on it remaining a premium/luxury market must hate that.
  
  --
  "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
30. Re:Money first by drinkypoo · 2012-05-06 23:36 · Score: 1
  
  USA milspec (which as anybody knows costs thousands per unit because of how much abuse they can take. They ARE built for the battlefield after all)
  
  Are you a troll, or do you really believe this? Because milspec often is not special in any way. It's simply "specified by the military".
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
31. Re:Money first by Sheepy · 2012-05-07 04:16 · Score: 1
  
  Its damned near impossible to BSOD a Windows 7 system with a bad driver, it will just silently kill and restart the driver (as a system should) and make a little note in Action Center about it.
  
  Is there any online documentation on this feature where the OS can silently kill and restart the driver? I can't find any references to that other than for "VPU Recover", which is supported as far back as Windows XP.
  I have recently been configuring a webserver running Windows Server 2008 R2, which uses the same kernel, NT 6.1, as Windows 7. It frequently gives a BSOD with error code "STOP: 0xD1". The minidump suggests the problem is due to an interaction between the network card driver and the kernel network libraries. This problem occurs with two different network card adaptors (with different drivers). It would be an huge improvement if Windows would simply restart the drivers rather than BSOD.
32. Re:Money first by garyebickford · 2012-05-07 06:35 · Score: 1
  
  Geez, that looks like something a Slackware user would do. And I thought Linux driver fixes could be painful!
  
  --
  It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
33. Re:Money first by hairyfeet · 2012-05-07 07:08 · Score: 1
  
  Actually the description is a lot larger and more complex than the actual action, which is
  1.- Go to Ninite check box for revo and run it, while open go ahead and do same with ATI driver 2.-Pick .NET from list and uninstall it, 3.-Download latest .NET and run it. 4.-Download latest AMD driver and run it
  And unlike Linux this is 100% GUI, no having to tweak CLI gobbledygook which is usually the case. Hell you can even send screen caps and your average grandma could do this one since revo is left at default settings. This is why I have said for years if Linux wishes to go anywhere CLI HAS TO BE BANNED because otherwise lazy devs use it as a crutch.
  Whether Linux devs wish to accept it or not there is one little bit of reality that simply can't be argued with and that is this: GUIs are explorable and discoverable, CLIs are not. if you don't already know the proper syntax conventions for that CLI then it might as well be in Chinese for all the good it is gonna do you, whereas with help files and tooltips even someone who has never used a particular GUI can find their way around enough to perform the task needed.
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
34. Re:Money first by hairyfeet · 2012-05-07 07:23 · Score: 1
  
  Did you go to Windows answers and submit a minidump? While I would assume that if you are running 2K8 you would have a support contract and thus be able to open a ticket even if you do not have a contract you can go here and tell them your problem and after submitting a minidump they will often escalate it within MSFT and get you a patch if its a Windows problem. I had this done myself when I found a weird little bug with WMP 12 where it would refuse to downconvert a WMA file from one bitrate to a lower bitrate. Once it was established that several other had replicated the problem it ended up getting a patch issued and was rolled into SP1 for Windows 7.
  Anyway considering how many tens of thousands of third party drivers Windows has to interact with having all drivers work perfectly is pretty much impossible but these are a great bunch of guys that have the ear of the MSFT dev teams and can get things escalated pretty quickly if they can reproduce the error or don't already have a hotfix for the issue.
  As for the restart I have found logs in customers PCs of restarts for video and audio (in those cases they were running badly out of date drivers) but I can't recall it happening with a network driver. Now that may be that I've never come across one with a buggy network drivers, as most of my customers often use the Windows default drivers, or it may mean that subsystem is simply too low a level for the silent restart to function. in any case register at the above site and you will often get a reply in a couple of hours max which for a free service is pretty damned good IMHO.
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
35. Re:Money first by garyebickford · 2012-05-07 07:25 · Score: 1
  
  <statement type="worldview" style="amusing>And unlike Linux this is 100% GUI, no having to tweak CLI gobbledygook which is usually the case. Hell you can even send screen caps and your average grandma could do this one since revo is left at default settings. This is why I have said for years if Linux wishes to go anywhere CLI HAS TO BE BANNED because otherwise lazy devs use it as a crutch.</statement>
  *GB opens a seltzer, sits back to watch the flame wars.* :D
  
  --
  It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
36. Re:Money first by hairyfeet · 2012-05-07 11:42 · Score: 1
  
  There won't be any flamewars because as it says in my sig I ignore ACs and most of the FOSSies here only post as ACs since they have their regular accounts modded to hell because of batshit conspiracy posts. They also have no comeback to one simple fact, ALL OSes USED to be CLIs and now they are not, why? Because GUIs are explorable and discoverable, CLI is not. Do you use CLI with an iPhone? Android? No? Why? Because its a crappy human interface that's why. But as long as those that have drank the koolaid truly believe that CLI has gonad powers then things simply won't get any better.
  So if they want to be like RMS and Discos Stu and hang out in 1978 that is fine by me, just like the rest of the planet i'll just ignore them.
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
37. Re:Money first by pgregg · 2012-05-07 21:13 · Score: 1
  
  shill is a shill shill with shills in it's shill.
  I am reporting you to the apostrophe police for willful and excessive use. Otherwise, the sentence was just fine.
incomeptent contracts != corruption by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-06 01:23 · Score: 3, Insightful

incomeptent contracts != corruption
1. Re:incomeptent contracts != corruption by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-06 02:04 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  It's funny that you can't even spell incompetent.
2. Re:incomeptent contracts != corruption by deoxyribonucleose · 2012-05-06 02:10 · Score: 1
  
  Yes.
3. Re:incomeptent contracts != corruption by kvvbassboy · 2012-05-06 02:24 · Score: 1
  
  It's not just incompetent contracts, but also looks like there was some breach of faith somewhere alone the way.
4. Re:incomeptent contracts != corruption by HornWumpus · 2012-05-06 02:27 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  Even if the sentence is framed correctly you cannot assume the intended information was passed on. Idiot.
  
  --
  John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
5. Re:incomeptent contracts != corruption by __aaltlg1547 · 2012-05-06 03:09 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  incomeptent contracts != corruption
  Breach of faith means that somebody failed to meet their commitments. That can mean that they signed up to do things that they later found out were harder than they thought. That's incompetence. Or more often it means that they knew they wouldn't come through and took your money anyway.
  The fact that they were paid in advance for hardware tells me it's more likely corruption/fraud than plain incompetence, but often you get the incompetence rolled into a fraudulent deal.
6. Re:incomeptent contracts != corruption by Anne_Nonymous · 2012-05-06 04:01 · Score: 1
  
  "$45 tablet? No sir, this is impossible. You told us $45 tabla. Now that we can arrange."
7. Re:incomeptent contracts != corruption by hey! · 2012-05-06 04:47 · Score: 2
  
  incomeptent contracts != corruption
  That may be true, but in my experience business deals require a little trust. If you think you can make a deal with untrustworthy people but protect yourself with contracts, you're naive. When you take the other guy to court because he stabbed you in the back, no result you can hope for beats never having dealt with him in the first place.
  These kinds of international business deals that involve technology and design know-how transfers are especially tricky. If your overseas partner suddenly realizes that he can make a lot more money with the technology he's got from you doing something else, it's much harder to go after them. I've seen really savvy business guys lose their shirts on deals where their foreign partner used their capital to develop technological capability, then pulled out when the technology was proven, reorganizing as a different legal entity.
  
  --
  Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
what did they expect? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-06 01:35 · Score: 5, Insightful

India? Corruption? You don't say...
1. Re:what did they expect? by ArchieBunker · 2012-05-06 01:38 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Looks like they forgot to factor in the cost of bribes. India is pretty much a 3rd world country by most standards. Money goes a long way towards having things go "right".
  
  --
  Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
2. Re:what did they expect? by wisnoskij · 2012-05-06 01:48 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  The phrase 3rd world has nothing to do with standards or wealth and India is a 3rd world country, I believe.
  That being said, I do not know about bribes, but I have been involved in projects where part of the team was outsourced in India and you often get what you paid for with outsourcing from what I have seen.
  
  --
  Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
3. Re:what did they expect? by vlm · 2012-05-06 02:07 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I have been involved in projects where part of the team was outsourced in India and you often get what you paid for with outsourcing from what I have seen.
  Let me guess
  "I can hire a whole team of educated experienced developers in India for the cost of one American dev"
  turns into a bunch of imaginary billing by people with fake degrees and no experience and no communication so it ends up costing more and not working.
  Analogy: Tenth cost android tablet in India ends up late and doesn't work. Isn't this Just how it always turns out over there?
  
  --
  "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
4. Re:what did they expect? by kryogen1x · 2012-05-06 02:20 · Score: 2
  
  Yeah, if only they had run this project in a city like Washington DC, we'd have computers that print money to cover their own costs.
5. Re:what did they expect? by wisnoskij · 2012-05-06 02:21 · Score: 2
  
  No, everyone we paid for at the very least seemed technically qualified for the job.
  The problem was that several other companies were also paying them to work full time for them.
  We found out, and one thing lead to another and they withheld all the work they had done on the project thus far.
  
  --
  Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
6. Re:what did they expect? by Megane · 2012-05-06 02:27 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  turns into a bunch of imaginary billing by people with fake degrees and no experience and no communication so it ends up costing more and barely working but when you fire them you discover that the code is a twisty piece of crap with WTFs everywhere and it would be easier to start over from scratch.
  
  --
  #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
7. Re:what did they expect? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-06 02:37 · Score: 1
  
  No, everyone we paid for at the very least seemed technically qualified for the job.
  Did you verify this? Did you check with any of their other clients? Did you get examples of their work?
  
  The problem was that several other companies were also paying them to work full time for them.
  Did you set up delivery schedules? Did you send anyone to India to "sniff around"?
  
  We found out, and one thing lead to another and they withheld all the work they had done on the project thus far.
  Let me guess; you still got suckered out of tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
  Due diligence - learn it.
8. Re:what did they expect? by 0100010001010011 · 2012-05-06 02:49 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  > 3rd world country by most standards
  By all standards I believe. I don't think they backed the US nor the USSR during the cold war.
9. Re:what did they expect? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-06 03:41 · Score: 1
  
  From Wikipedia:
  The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO (which along with its allies represented the First World), or communism and the Soviet Union (which along with its allies represented the Second World). This definition provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the earth into three groups based on social, political, and economic divisions.
10. Re:what did they expect? by vlm · 2012-05-06 04:39 · Score: 1
  
  Did you verify this? Did you check with any of their other clients? Did you get examples of their work?
  Did you set up delivery schedules? Did you send anyone to India to "sniff around"?
  Le me guess... "Why should we? The outsourcing consultant who made a lot of money said it would be just like hiring local employees and we've never done any of that to our employees."
  
  --
  "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Nice try by Nidi62 · 2012-05-06 01:48 · Score: 4, Insightful

I don't know what town you live in (or who is paying you to live there), but to most people, Google and Android stand for options. If you want to save money, you can get a cheap Android device. If you want to pay for quality, you can get a quality Android device. You can put whatever you want on your own device. And I don't think any reasonable person would expect a $45 Android tablet to have the same capabilities or quality as an iPad, and it doesn't need to if you look at what it's designed for: to make technology available in a non-1st world state.
Of course, the nature of your post and the fact that your ID is almost as high as the National Debt show you are nothing more than a paid (at least I hope you are at least getting paid) astroturfer trying to make Google look bad. The truth is that Google is nowhere near the "bad joke around town". People like you are, though. Subtlety, try it.

--
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
1. Re:Nice try by thsths · 2012-05-06 03:48 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  > If you want to pay for quality, you can get a quality Android device.
  It is more like: if you pay for quality, you *may* get a quality Android device, but you wont know until much later. Some manufacturers promise support and upgrades, but never deliver. In fact none of the Android manufacturers delivers consistently decent (not even outstanding) support.
2. Re:Nice try by symbolset · 2012-05-06 04:51 · Score: 2
  
  At $45 they were basically looking at an ereader with wifi and the ability to run some limited programs. DataWind did deliver a design that could be made and delivered at that cost, and the second generation was even better. This could have been awesome. The price point is important because India needs about a half-billion of these tablets to provide one to each student over the next decade. They have devised a k-12 curriculum to put on it.
  I'm confident they will find a way, but it doesn't look like DataWind is going to be able to pull it off unless some angel investor swoops in and rescues them.
  
  --
  Help stamp out iliturcy.
3. Re:Nice try by EdIII · 2012-05-06 11:29 · Score: 1
  
  Well at least Android is 4G already........
4. Re:Nice try by ozmanjusri · 2012-05-06 21:20 · Score: 1
  
  I'm confident they will find a way
  I'd say they already have, which is why they're trashing the DataWind deal.
  You can buy similarly specced tablets dropshipped from China for less than $40 (in volumes) now. http://kingpai.en.alibaba.com/productlist.html
  
  --
  "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Is it any suprise by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-06 02:15 · Score: 1

about corruption in India?
A tablet for 70 - 75 dollars in India by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-06 02:22 · Score: 1

People seem to be surprised that Akash tablets are turning out to be failures.The cost factor was a big lie and so it will be revised.
There are tablets available for $70-$75 range.Take a look at olivepad v-tr200 specs.You will be surprised that its there and shipping.
Not that it ought to be good...but cost reduction is possible.
http://www.olivetelecom.in/laptop/olivepad/vtr-200.html
Short version by Intrepid+imaginaut · 2012-05-06 02:22 · Score: 4, Informative

From what I can tell, they got the tender, did all the groundwork, then the group they were collaborating with came out with new impossible to achieve specs, backed up by the government, and their subcontractor wandered off to create a competing product.
What a pity, but it looks like they've been had.
1. Re:Short version by msobkow · 2012-05-06 04:21 · Score: 2
  
  Sadly this kind of thing is all too common in India. A friend of mine was fool enough to believe it when he was promised all kinds of percentages and payments "in the future" if he'd help arrange investors for a project in India. He did his work, he made the contacts, and now most of the participants have signed on to side deals that don't pay him anything.
  We warned him it was too good to be true. I'm sure people warned those who got into this $45 tablet debacle, too. But some people won't listen to warnings once they get the dollar signs in their eyes...
  
  --
  I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
2. Re:Short version by Intrepid+imaginaut · 2012-05-06 04:57 · Score: 1
  
  Well hopefully it doesn't ruin any of the well meaning guys that tried to make this happen, dollar signs aren't usually stacked too deeply around $45 tablets! With any luck they can call it lesson learned and get on with their lives the wiser for it.
3. Re:Short version by msobkow · 2012-05-06 05:38 · Score: 1
  
  Don't underestimate the profitability of hitting a billion user market in hopes of earning $1 per customer...
  
  --
  I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
4. Re:Short version by Osgeld · 2012-05-06 06:50 · Score: 1
  
  well jeez it was just such an original forward thinking item that no one could have ever come up with ARM+touchscreen+android during all this time they have been dragging nuts getting around to it
DataWind by karolgajewski · 2012-05-06 02:23 · Score: 2

I don't know if it's fair to still call DataWind a Canadian company. Yes, it was founded in Montreal, but ... R&D is in Montreal.. management is in the UK.

--
- .k. -
Re:Barely legible summary by Kneo24 · 2012-05-06 02:51 · Score: 3, Funny

By now we all know that the editors don't do a lot of editing. I suggest that people start submitting summaries without spelling errors.
Re:another reason to stop outsourcing to india by sir-gold · 2012-05-06 05:01 · Score: 2

CEOs don't care one bit about the cost of business.
Either you raise the price of the finished product and make the customer pay for the inefficiency, or you claim a business loss, and use tax loopholes to make the government pay for the inefficiency.
If that all fails, you can fire enough low-level employees to cover the inefficiency. and if THAT fails, you max out the corporate loans, write yourself a nice fat severance check, and disappear into South America.
The only thing a CEO cares about is whether or not his new Tesla Roadster will be delivered on time
Re:Doomed from the start by symbolset · 2012-05-06 05:17 · Score: 2

My Transformer TF101 at $400 is really nice. It has ICS, and you can buy them now for $350 even though there's a new model out that has quad core. The iPad2 can be had for $350 as an Apple refurb. But those are 10" tablets, and the one we're talking about is half that size.
They don't need to make a ton of money on each one. India was looking to buy a half-billion of these tablets. And the maker would get to have the brand recognition as provider of tablets to all the students in India - and so sell their retail tablets at more of a markup.
I know it seems unlikely, but it does appear they were going to make it happen.

--
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Datawind were trying to sell junk anyway by dell623 · 2012-05-06 05:43 · Score: 1

This project needs to die, and die fast. It doesn't matter just how it happens, it's a colossal waste of money. Datawind were trying to sell awful junk for more than it costs to just buy a bit less awful junk from China. The Indian government department concerned is clueless about technology, from the minister all the way down.
Shameless self promotion, but very relevant: you can read my old blog entry about the folly of this project here: http://colourmeamused.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/4/
The reason for poor internet penetration at this point isn't that much to do with cost right now. There are many many people who can well afford to get internet access and afford basic but adequate computing devices in India but don't. Maybe we should start with those people first. I'll write something about the state of internet penetration in India, if anyone's interested you can subscribe to the blog if wordpress lets you do that.
What is the BFD with an $45 tablet by Roman+Mamedov · 2012-05-06 05:54 · Score: 2

Everyone touts it as the second coming, some great breakthrough etc. Well here's one for $55. $10 more? Yes. But with free worldwide shipping included.
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-gs/454240700-7-Inch-Android-2-2-Tablet-PC-support-WIFI-3G-Android-MID-with-retail-package-8121-wholesalers.html
+ thousands of other models.
People thinking a tablet is called an iPad and costs $500 or whatever and you can get nothing cheaper, should get a reality (or an Aliexpress) check.
1. Re:What is the BFD with an $45 tablet by Roman+Mamedov · 2012-05-06 05:57 · Score: 2
  
  Actually here's a better model and $2 cheaper http://www.aliexpress.com/product-gs/439643437-Free-shipping-NEW-7-Inch-Android-2-3-256M-4GB-WiFi-Tablet-Pc-wholesalers.html
2. Re:What is the BFD with an $45 tablet by msobkow · 2012-05-06 06:52 · Score: 1
  
  Oh, Wow! What a deal!
  A device with half the memory that I needed to run a GUI-based Linux distribution over five years ago, and less storage space than my MP3 player.
  This isn't a "product" anyone will find useful. It's a piece of crap that won't actually run anything worth the effort.
  
  --
  I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
3. Re:What is the BFD with an $45 tablet by Roman+Mamedov · 2012-05-06 07:46 · Score: 2
  
  The linked tablets have the exact same specs as the indian one mentioned in this story. So if you're going to diss the specs, you can start right with that one. And no, you don't run an old GNU/Linux distribution on these tablets, you run a tailored version of Android. Which runs pretty well with 256 MB of RAM.
4. Re:What is the BFD with an $45 tablet by msobkow · 2012-05-06 10:53 · Score: 1
  
  Which would kind of be the point: You can't get anything worth owning at the $50 price point.
  
  --
  I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
5. Re:What is the BFD with an $45 tablet by interkin3tic · 2012-05-06 19:32 · Score: 1
  
  While I'll admit that iphone knockoffs have sometimes seemed to be better than the original, I have no idea how I'd go about checking if I'm actually going to get something that actually turns on, let alone has half the capabilities of an ipad.
6. Re:What is the BFD with an $45 tablet by Roman+Mamedov · 2012-05-06 21:17 · Score: 1
  
  Unlike eBay the Aliexpress system shows buyer feedback for each item publicly, so you can see that on both tablets that I have linked they have hundreds of positive "excellent", "5 star" feedback from people.
7. Re:What is the BFD with an $45 tablet by drinkypoo · 2012-05-06 23:35 · Score: 1
  
  Which would kind of be the point: You can't get anything worth owning at the $50 price point.
  The shitty tablet posted above has more power than my first dozen computers put together, and probably more RAM too. And I got real work done on many of those machines. You're full of shit.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
8. Re:What is the BFD with an $45 tablet by msobkow · 2012-05-07 02:56 · Score: 1
  
  I'm bored, so I'll bite the troll hook.
  A 1GHz PIII with 512MB of RAM takes nearly 3 minutes to boot and load to the point of being able to browse with Firefox with Ubuntu or Windows XP. Without hardware acceleration, the box is incapable of displaying video any faster than 4-5 frames per second when full-screened.
  It takes a minute or two to load an office suite to edit a document.
  Just because it used to be my primary work machine when I bought it does not mean that software bloat has made it useless in modern times.
  A machine with half the memory but the same CPU and video card (my folk's) took almost TEN minutes to load and boot due to the bloating of the anti-virus software alone over those years.
  Just because a machine doesn't actually crash doesn't mean it's USABLE.
  
  --
  I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
9. Re:What is the BFD with an $45 tablet by vandamme · 2012-05-07 14:28 · Score: 1
  
  Well, duh, running windoze and anti-virus, what would you expect? Try a lite Linux, there are a bunch of 'em. 512M? Puppy, or Bodhi maybe. No, not Kubuntu.
Poor Country == Corruption by superflit · 2012-05-06 06:56 · Score: 3, Interesting

Coming from a third world country I can tell:
The more poorer a country more corruption it has.
And please do not refute using 'per capita' income (the arabs country have higher 'per capita' but it seems only for the 'choosen ones')
Sad but true...
1. Re:Poor Country == Corruption by couchslug · 2012-05-06 07:38 · Score: 1
  
  "The more poorer a country more corruption it has."
  In rich countries, we call corruption "government" and it's less visible due to being in cahoots with the people who also own the media.
  
  --
  "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
2. Re:Poor Country == Corruption by Gothmolly · 2012-05-07 05:14 · Score: 1
  
  You have it backwards.
  Corruption == Poor Country
  
  --
  I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Re:Queue the phony Gamemaker dialog in 3... 2... 1 by couchslug · 2012-05-06 07:34 · Score: 1

"If I see one more spate of unintelligible posts about Gamemaker from multiple accounts (at least 4) owned by the same jackass, I'm gonna slit my wrists."
Useless. Find HIM and slit HIS wrists instead.

--
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Corruption? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-06 13:25 · Score: 1

Corruption? I didn't see any mention of it in either the two-part New York Times piece or the article linked from India's Economic Times. Or is it automatically assumed that when a project of this nature fails in India corruption has to be the cause?
DataWind was doomed anyways by chundo · 2012-05-07 02:36 · Score: 1

"We had to send daily reports to the CEO, which would in turn justify our salary. Failure to do so meant a deduction in that days's wage," said a vice president, who resigned on the same grounds.
Any company that responds to crisis like that was never going to make it anyways.
running the equivalent of Android it would fly by Chirs · 2012-05-07 03:31 · Score: 1

That 1GHz PIII is faster than a 1GHz Arm chip out now. It would *fly* with any of the smartphone/tablet OS's.
Remember, these things are not normally running full-blown general-purpose linux distros.
Check the list of scandals in India by NewYork · 2012-05-07 05:47 · Score: 1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_in_India_(state_wise)

--
Casteism