In typical media hyperbole which send the entire population into a tizzy fit, some Bharatis (aka Indian) have announced a $35 Tablet. When one reads the details, the real story comes out. Mr. Mamta Varma has not found a local backer of his project and there is only lukewarm news about the possibility of a manufacturer in Taiwan that can possibly make the tablet and keep the price at $35.
PC world for one is not impressed by the news and is skeptical that the price can be kept so low. If the tablet is going to be manufactured in China (Taiwan), then can it really be called an “Indian” tablet.
Discussion the Bharati tablet an analyst at Forrester would only call it “plausible” a euphemism for “in the realm of possibility not probability”. Forrester also questions the profitability of the venture.
“Depending on the quality of material they are using, certainly it’s plausible,” . “The question is, is it good enough for students?” Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research.
A good question being asked by the IT professionals is why is the Bharati government is making such an announcement? It should be Tata’s Electronics division or Apple-India Inc that should be selling cheap laptops, not the Government of India. Given the Bharati government’s propensity to exaggerate so called innovation, Verma’s announcement and the lack of specifics about the product make most analysts leery of the project.
Many analysts see this as just a marketing campaign by Mamta Verma to shore up his credibility after the colossal failures at Education Technology projects. This particular project is part of an ambitious education technology initiative by the Bharati government, which also aims to bring broadband connectivity to India’s 25,000 colleges and 504 universities and make study materials available online. So far only a fraction of the colleges have been connected (mainly by dial-up) and only a few dozen video-based courses created. Skeptics are leery of any original content in the courses created, and many think its just a copy and paste job. Because of the lack of efficiency and planning the courses have been uploaded on YouTube and other portals.
- Why the $35 Tablet PC Isn’t Ready for the World
- A $35 touch screen PC the Indian government just announced sounds like a dream. Trouble is, some gotcha always keeps the dream from becoming a reality.
- Kakai Kno and the Entourage Edge tablets are already making tall claims of cheap tablets which do more than the one announced by Bharat.
- Mamta Varma, a ministry spokeswoman, said falling hardware costs and intelligent design make the price tag 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.
- Varma said several global manufacturers, including at least one from Taiwan, have shown interest in making the low-cost device, but no manufacturing or distribution deals have been finalized. She declined to name any of the companies.
- India plans to subsidize the cost of the tablet for its students, bringing the purchase price down to around $20.
- “Depending on the quality of material they are using, certainly it’s plausible,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research. “The question is, is it good enough for students?”
- Profitability is also a question for the $35 machine.
- Epps said government subsidies or dual marketing — where higher-priced sales in the developed world are used to subside low-cost sales in markets like India — could convince a manufacturer to come on board (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100723/ap_on_hi_te/as_india_supercheap_computer)
How many times will we be burned by the promise of ultra low-cost computers, like the $35 touch screen PC the Indian government just announced?
India has a prototype of the cheap computer, and plans to roll the real thing out to Indian schoolchildren and higher education students in 2011. It’ll have a Linux-based operating system, a USB port, a 2 GB memory card and other unspecified specs, the Guardian reports. But as fascinating as the super cheap laptop concept may be, there’s always some snag, gotcha or fatal flaw that prevents the promises from matching up with reality.
In the case of One Laptop Per Child, the goal of a $100 laptop was never achieved. Even in the second-hand eBay market, asking prices are closer to $200. Earlier this year, a website claimed to offer $98 laptops running Windows CE, but that site is now defunct. Another company called Cherrypal has tried making a name for itself with dirt-cheap laptops, like the 7-inch model running Android for $100, but getting one can be a hassle, as one customer has documented.
The $35 tablet’s problem is already clear if you read the AP’s coverage: India wants to get the price down to around $20 in order to sell the tablet at home, but to do that, the country either needs to subsidize the cost itself — a tall order with 110 million kids targeted in the initial roll out — or convince manufacturers to set higher prices in the developed world.
In other words, the $35 tablet’s manufacturing cost alone would be more expensive outside of India. Let’s make the grand assumption that manufacturers would even want to deal with thinner profit margins than netbooks; I wonder whether consumers in the developed world would be willing to pay for a tablet with no memory, an unknown operating system and other specs that apparently can’t even be mentioned at this point in time. PC World
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