India's $10 Laptop to be revealed Feb. 3 (Updated)
January 30, 2009 by Lisa Zyga(PhysOrg.com) -- On February 3, the Indian government will display a prototype of the Rs 500, a $10 laptop that will hopefully give more young people the opportunity to learn and help increase the country's school enrollment.
UPDATE (February 4, 2009):
On Tuesday, February 3, India's national Mission on Education Program clarified that the $10 laptop is actually not a laptop, but a storage device. The storage device contains megabytes of data that can be accessed by a user by connecting the device to a laptop. The 5-inch by 10-inch Rs 500 storage device is now priced at $30. Joint Secretary N. K. Sinha, who made the announcement, did not explain why the device was being called a laptop when it was not. via: Times of India
The $10 laptop project is the product of a collaboration among institutions including the Vellore Institute of Technology, the Indian Institute of Science, and IIT-Madras. The project began about three years ago in response to the proposed $100 laptop (the "One Laptop Per Child" project), an idea from MIT's Nicholas Negroponte, which was going to cost $200. Currently, the $10 laptop is projected to cost $20, but India's secretary of higher education R. P. Agarwal hopes that price will come down with mass production.
The $10 laptop will be equipped with 2 GB of memory, WiFi, fixed Ethernet, expandable memory, and consume just 2 watts of power.
The unveiling of the laptop will occur at the government's launch of the National Mission on Education through Information and Technology, held next Tuesday in Tirupati. The Indian government is working with publishers to provide e-content on educational subjects which will be available free of cost. The government is also considering a plan to subsidize internet connections for schools.
Currently, the government is consulting with different production agencies, and hopes to make the computers commercially available in the next six months.
via: Engadget
© 2009 PhysOrg.com
Oct 19, 2009 |
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5" LCD screen - $15
.5 GB RAM - $1
CPU $3
Still I can't get to 20 - still need power, motherboard, keyboard (or touch screen), mousepad,
case, on/off switch, and at least one USB port.
So I don't believe it either.
Having spent considerable time in India over the years I can tell you labor and materials are much cheaper than imaginable in the West or even Japan/Taiwan. So I think it is a bit myopic to just discount the price as impossible.
I will admit it is a very low price but if they can find local producers of parts they will not have to worry about exchange rates and who knows it might be possible.
Even if it costs 30 or 40 dollars it is good to see people pushing the boundaries.
Time will tell....
One other factor to throw in their accomplishment is that this cheapy PC doesn't need to pass Western regulations for safety and reliability. Nor do manufacturers necessarily need to give employee benefits. Lower the bar enough, and things become very cheap. It's not just a matter of the difference in cost of Indian material and labor. (Read: exploitation.)
That said, its laudable that India is thinking of it and has Prof Nicholas Negroponte to thank for it. The Govt of India may never create the $10 laptop, but the fact it thought of it, teh fact that all TV stations talk about the $10 laptop and show teh picture of Prof Negroponte's laptop, that there are a dozen laptops that cost about $200 to $350 in teh market now can mostly be credited to the vision offered by Prof Negroponte. His One Laptop per Child has already gone to some million children across a couple dozen countries and that is great as it has changed the lives of children in those countries..
Of course the laptop should be available to children for free. Given the current costs even a $10 laptop is too expensive. But it cannot be made for free. OLPC brought the price down to say $50 a year or $4 a month. That in lieu of a school building is peanuts to pay for learning like the kids in American schools do or better.
I would think India would have gone for a safer bet had it followed Prof Negroponte's lead and continued to work on the laptop to lower the price point rather than come up with unbelievable statements..
If the laptop comes up with 4 to 5 year old CPUs taken out of old PCs or laptops and just carved out of the junk, it would hardly impress anyone.. It may have been better to have come up with the product first and announced later with a picture..
Prof Negroponte may be able to laugh at it as finally the India media has been showing OLPC laptop giving it the publicity OLPC could not afford.. And no one seems to believe that the govt of India is likely to come up with anything even close by miles..
Saying that while he applauds the aspiration, the fact that in this global economy all the global players who know a thing or two about product creation have not made a similar claim should mean something.
Then again, OLPC makes the only ZERO profit laptop and no one can offer anything below that cost as we speak unless there is a new technological breakthrough.
More interestingly.. Guess the project needs the blessings of the Lord and therefore is being appropriately launched at the seat of the Lord. It may be a divine product for all we know for humans do not seem to have advanced so far as yet.
Interesting indeed!!
I.E. you still have to have a normal computer before using this.
The box got WLAN, 2GB memory and can be used to print learning material for schools. OS is Linux ofcourse.