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Can Cheap Android Tablets Bridge the Digital Divide? (teleread.org)
It's now possible to buy a 7-inch Android tablet for under $50 -- for example, the Nook Tablet 7 or Amazon's cheapest Fire tablet. "Since the Fire can now easily install regular Android apps, it has become useful out of all proportion to its price," writes long-time Slashdot reader Robotech_Master, noting that for many applications tablets can replace a desktop or laptop computer. TeleRead.org is even arguing this could be what bridges the digital divide:
[N]ot just for reading ebooks and assisting in education, but for more basic tasks. People with low or no incomes could search and apply for better jobs. Students could do homework and term papers on their tablet if their siblings or parents are using the desktop.
Besides the obvious applications like email and web browsing, $50 Android tablets also offer cheap phone calls via Google Hangouts. (You can even get your own phone number through Google Voice.) Calling the tablets "a full-fledged internet terminal... easily within reach of even the lowest-income families," the article concludes "I can hardly wait to see where these tablets go from here."
Besides the obvious applications like email and web browsing, $50 Android tablets also offer cheap phone calls via Google Hangouts. (You can even get your own phone number through Google Voice.) Calling the tablets "a full-fledged internet terminal... easily within reach of even the lowest-income families," the article concludes "I can hardly wait to see where these tablets go from here."
China was already pumping ~$25 android crapphones for half a decade.
Those things sell like hot cakes in South Asia and Africa.
For an even longer period, they were selling $70 arm6 based crapbooks. First ones came during netbook boom, and they are being sold to this day to the same markets I named above. You can't do anything with them other than checking email, playing mp3s, or browsing nineties level websites, but for most people there it is more than enough.
I've been called upon to restore apps from backup when the latest update doesn't work with the device. OS updates are usually not available for these devices. You just use it until most of your apps stop working and then buy a new one to get a more current OS. Such is a hidden cost which severely limits the life span, and increases the cost of the device.
I have been doing that for years for the oldsters in our family on 50$ tablets, so they can text and phone for free all around the house.
You've (probably unintentionally) pointed out something which works against the premise of the submission itself.
Cheap Android tablets have been around for years - this is not new, and they haven't "bridged the digital divide" up to this point.
The people who buy these sorts of devices seem to be middle class and up. $50-$100 is the "I can give a cheap tablet to each of the kids without going nuts if they break them" price range.
#DeleteChrome
Cheap phones can. Tablets are really only useful for consuming content. Now, cheap laptops yes. A keyboard, word processor, spreadsheets, programming environment, etc. Eg a full on PC. The truncated experience you get on a tablet doesn't cut it.
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" $50 Android tablets also offer cheap phone calls via Google Hangouts."
Or just buy an empty prepaid simcard on ebay or for 50 cents, (or an actual one on the corner bodega) to receive the install SMS (on your cellphone) and install Whatsapp. (on the tablet)
I have been doing that for years for the oldsters in our family on 50$ tablets, so they can text and phone for free all around the house.
The digital divide isn't about hardware. I picked up an iphone 5s a few months ago for my kids for $50 to use on wifi. Our school issues ipads to every student in middle school and high school. The problem is access to the internet. Even free hardware is pretty useless if you don't have reliable internet. In my area, options start at about $50/month (which comes out to $600/year) and even if you can afford that, that assumes you even have the ability to install it. Plenty of poor people live in situations like subsidized housing, a friend's basement, or some odd-ball living situation where getting internet installed isn't even an option. One of my son's friend literally lived in tent with his parents for a while and now has upgraded to living in a pop-up camper. Getting broadband in a situation like this is pretty much impossible.
Hell is something close to debugging PHP with embedded SQL on a low resolution tablet.
And yes, I have been to Africa recently, and yes I could get a P4 with a CRT and PS2 keyboard and mouse for under $50 (it did look past its prime though). I could also buy a Nigerian Guinness for about $0.30 and a nutritiously sound meal for about $1.50. An experienced local would obviously pay less than me for the meal or the computer, unless he had drunk too much Nigerian Guinness.
A lot of people there already had $50 tablets two years ago. Some even had PCs with Linux.
The problem in Africa is not access to hardware, it is, to some degree, understanding the benefits of the hardware (particularly as compared to the merits of dressing up and partying). However, you could access mainframes in 1963 here in the UK. How many people had a use for a mainframe in 1963? Hell, how many people would have known what one did, even if they were in the computer room? (it was enough to make Ross Perot filthy rich). However, the clothes and parties here in the UK in 1963 were pretty crap unless you were a cabinet minister (see Profumo).
The solution to this problem is time not hardware.
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And yes, I have been to Africa recently...
The problem in Africa...
A bigger problem is people describing 'Africa', and giving a one size fits all solution.
It makes as much sense as talking about the Americas and assuming what's good for the US is good for Venezuela.
Not only is Google Voice only available in the States, it also requires a real, physical phone line (land line or mobile) to activate. I really don't think that does anything for people whose lives might be changed by a $50 tablet.
Don't need broadband. Just an acceptable internet connection. The city next door has city-wide WiFi. Not to mention most smartphones already have an acceptable connection. People can get online, it's just those spoiled by their home connection who can't understand what a gift the alternatives are.
That's great in theory. Where I live there is free wifi downtown, free wifi at mcdonalds and several coffee houses, free wifi at the public library, and the school even offers free wifi to its students before and after school. The problem with this is that even the before and after school option requires actually travelling somewhere and some cheap and reliable transportation to get there. I live in a partially rural area where public transportation doesn't really exist and even some of the poor that have jobs don't actually own a car. They generally manage to figure out the bare necessities to get to work by bumming off a co-worker or something similar but actually finding a reliable way to visit the library or show up at school an hour early to use the internet is many times out of their reach. Sure, there are ways. They can walk the 5 miles into town, they can hitchhike, etc... but I think you underestimate some of the challenges the truly poor have. They are not worried about where to find internet. They are a lot more concerned about where to find this month's (or week's) rent money or the money to buy dinner tonight.