India unveils $35 tablet computer

India’s tablet is no iPad, but it sure costs less

The Associated Press

MUMBAI, India | India has unveiled the prototype of a $35 computer, a basic touch-screen tablet aimed at students.

The government hopes to bring the device into production by 2011. If a manufacturer can be found, the Linux operating system computer will be the latest in a string of “world’s cheapest” innovations to hit the market out of India — home to the $2,127 compact Nano car.

The tablet, designed by students and professors at India’s top technical universities, can be used for functions such as word processing, web browsing and videoconferencing. It has a solar power option, too — important for India’s energy-starved hinterlands — though that costs extra.

Mamta Varma, a government spokeswoman, said falling hardware costs and intelligent design make the price plausible.

The tablet doesn’t have a hard disk but instead uses a memory card, much like a mobile phone. The tablet design cuts hardware costs, and the use of open-source software also adds to savings, she said.

More ... http://www.kansascity.com/2010/07/24/2104676_indias-tablet-is-no-ipad-but-it.html?storylink=omni_popular

Hmmmm......

Can't say 100%, but the last time I checked India's minimum wage was higher than China's.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/business/worldbusiness/18invest.html?_r=1

^snip^

A long list of concerns about China is feeding the trend: inflation, shortages of workers and energy, a strengthening currency, changing government policies, even the possibility of widespread civil unrest someday. But most important, wages in China are rising close to 25 percent a year in many industries, in dollar terms, and China is no longer such a bargain.

You link from 2008 is a bit old, but you are still correct.

China's minimum wage is now almost double India's.

Good for India. Something as simple as this can change everything.

just a big touch screen with similar capabilities

Even the Indian blogs are skeptical.

I don't have any issue with this being sold there. My problem is that our trade deals will allow these things to be sold here and undercut other low end computers even though this won't be as good. If the government was making ten bucks a unit I would have less of a problem with it.

If there is enough memory (and an on screen keyboard) for kids to keep all their school notes in one place I can see lots of young students using these.

By adding so many bells & whistles, they have complicated the phone to the nth degree.. The buttons & lettering are so damned small, unless you have eagle-eye vision, you cannot even read the damned thing, and there are still people out here who would like to just have a PHONE...and who do not want to surf the web, type out missives on the world's smallest keyboard, or watch movies on a postage stamp-sized screen.

of course, without all the gizmos, they would never be able to charge an arm & a leg per month, or lock people into multi-year contracts that would make an old-time mobster weep with joy.

It's the same with trucks. Once upon a time, trucks were the cheap end of the car market. they were utilitarian vehicles for blue-collar working guys...plumbers, handymen,landscapers, painters, carpenters, etc. They were stripped down & cheap, and lasted forever..Then they were marketed to yuppies who wanted to LOOK rugged ...to make them cool, they loaded them up with every feature possible, and before long it was nearly impossible to find just a basic cheap truck..

they were working pants, hardy, durable and cheap.

Then they became "hippified" and then "designer yuppified" jeans. Pre-washed and pre-torn and pre-ragged...and expensive.

Give me the old fashioned cheap kind. I'll fade, stain and tear them all by myself, tyvm.