Monday 26 July 2010

India unveils low-cost tablet PC


India has unveiled the prototype of a $35 (£22.68) basic touch screen tablet aimed at students, which it hopes to bring into production by 2011.

If the Government can find a manufacturer, the Linux operating system-based computer would be the latest in a string of "world's cheapest" innovations to hit the market out of India, which is home to the 100,000 rupee (£1,378.38 ) compact Nano car, the 749 rupees (£10.32) water purifier and the $2,000 (£1,296.19 ) open-heart surgery.

The tablet can be used for functions like word processing, web browsing and video-conferencing. It has a solar power option too - important for India's energy-starved hinterlands - though that add-on costs extra.

"This is our answer to MIT's $100 (£64.79) computer," Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal told the Economic Times when he unveiled the device on Thursday.

In 2005, Nicholas Negroponte - co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab - unveiled a prototype of a $100 (£64.79) laptop for children in the developing world. India rejected that as too expensive and embarked on a multi-year effort to develop a cheaper option of its own.

Negroponte's laptop ended up costing about $200 (£129.56), but in May his non-profit association, One Laptop Per Child, said it planned to launch a basic tablet computer for $99 (£64.13).

Mr Sibal turned to students and professors at India's elite technical universities to develop the $35 (£22.68) tablet after receiving a "lukewarm" response from private sector players. He hopes to get the cost down to $10 (£6.47) eventually.

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