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India unveils prototype of $35 tablet computer — Parallax Forums

India unveils prototype of $35 tablet computer

UnknownUnknown
edited 2010-07-23 19:35 in General Discussion
India unveils prototype of $35 tablet computer

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jK-xNItHUfhfEVUEP_BvLbXmDlrwD9H4MP680

The low cost device, which naturally runs Linux, is being readied for production with India's Human resource development minister Kapil Sibal saying that "The motherboard, its chip, the processing, connectivity, all of them cumulatively cost around $35, including memory, display, everything."

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1724425/indian-government-announces-usd35-laptop

Comments

  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2010-07-23 13:12
    By the time the unit is assembled and put in a case, it'll cost a lot more than that, though. I'd make a guess at $100.

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    Leon Heller
    Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2010-07-23 13:45
    Leave it to the Inquirer to make such claims. And what ever happened to Tata Motor's $2000USD auto? The EEEpc was a serious attempt at making a notebook computer for the 3rd world and did indeed break a price barrier at under $300USD. But under $50USD for a complete functional computer is a bit absurd. The old Palm PDAs were cheap, but now everyone expects a high resolution color touch screen. Keyboards may actually just be an unnecessary expense.

    Of course, one could say it has already been done by Parallax with the Propeller Demo Board. Just use a recycled monitor, a recycled keyboard, and a recycled mouse. Parallax provides the software for free. Just put it into EEPROMs.

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    Ain't gadetry a wonderful thing?

    aka G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse] 黃鶴 ] in Taiwan

    Post Edited (Loopy Byteloose) : 7/23/2010 1:51:24 PM GMT
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2010-07-23 15:09
    It's got a touch screen, like my Dell Streak tablet. It doesn't need a keyboard.

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    Leon Heller
    Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
  • HollyMinkowskiHollyMinkowski Posts: 1,398
    edited 2010-07-23 16:24
    I was just going to post this from a story by Reuters.

    ?m=02&d=20100723&t=2&i=161631788&w=320&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=2010-07-23T124325Z_01_BTRE66M0ZCG00_RTROPTP_0_INDIA
    www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66M0R720100723

    Those guys from India, they are really smart smile.gif

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    justasm.blogspot.com/
  • waltcwaltc Posts: 158
    edited 2010-07-23 17:49
    Can't find anything about the specs of the unit. Though it wouldn't surprise me to find a ARM variant in there like a OMAP since its a low cost SOC, but even that puppy in 1k unit quantities is still about $18.00.

    Still I can't see how they get the price down to $35.00 unless they use child slave labor and parts salvaged from old cell phones and the like.

    Still the rural people of India and Africa would be better served with sanitation services and clean water not a goofy laptop.
  • UnknownUnknown
    edited 2010-07-23 19:35
    waltc said...
    Can't find anything about the specs of the unit. Though it wouldn't surprise me to find a ARM variant in there like a OMAP since its a low cost SOC, but even that puppy in 1k unit quantities is still about $18.00.

    Still I can't see how they get the price down to $35.00 unless they use child slave labor and parts salvaged from old cell phones and the like.

    Still the rural people of India and Africa would be better served with sanitation services and clean water not a goofy laptop.
    The news article talks about illiteracy in India.· I guess one of these devices can teach writing but what is wrong with paper and pencil?· I feel like in some cases, the only potential of that machine will be learning literacy for a while.
    ·
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