A tablet computer for $35. That’s the estimated retail price of a prototype basic touchscreen tablet developed by the government of India.
The device, which uses the open-source Linux operating system, was unveiled Thursday by Kapil Sibal, India’s human-resource development minister. “This is our answer to M.I.T.’s $100 computer,” he told the Economic Times.
$10, Eventually
His reference is to the $100 laptop that M.I.T. Media Lab cofounder Nicholas Negroponte set as a goal when he founded One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) in 2005. The main idea was to build an innovative, inexpensive computer to be used by children in developing countries.
But the Indian government thought that even $100 was too expensive, so it started developing its own. In the meantime, OLPC’s laptop was developed and released, but at an eventual price of about $200. OLPC announced in the spring that it would develop and launch a basic tablet computer for $99.
The Indian tablet was developed by researchers and students at the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science at Sibal’s urging. He has told news media that the goal is to eventually get the price closer to $10. The Indian government, which is undertaking a major educational technology initiative, will subsidize the tablet, bringing the near-term price down to $20.
The prototype has no hard drive but uses a memory card, can run on solar power, and incorporates open-source software. The government said it supports web browsing, word processing, video conferencing, and other applications.
A previous effort by the Indian government, announced last year, to develop a $10 laptop ended with a prototype handheld device that has apparently been abandoned.
‘Have a Few on Hand’
The government has said that at least one Taiwanese manufacturer, in addition to other computer makers, is interested in building the device, although no arrangements have been made….