India's $10 Laptop Isn't A Laptop... And Nobody's Sure Exactly What It Is

from the land-of-confusion dept

Earlier in the week, I posted that a new cheap laptop initiative from the Indian government was following the OLPC project's strategy of forging ahead on its own, instead of collaborating with market players and taking advantage of the benefits such collaboration could offer. Some more details about the project have emerged, and I'm glad to report they weren't doing what I predicted, in that they didn't launch a new student-focused netbook; instead, they launched... well, this thing that isn't a laptop. The problem is it's not very clear at all what, exactly, the device is. The Times of India calls it "a damp squib," and a storage device that could lead to the development of a $60 laptop. Photos aren't a lot of help, nor is the description that it "helps e-learners access the Web easily." Even the most detailed list of specs doesn't help. As far as we can tell, it's some sort of glorified 2GB thumb drive, in a 10-inch by 5-inch case, that may or may not include some networking technology. It's somehow related to a project to put textbook information online so it can more easily be accessed in remote parts of the country. So, congrats to the Indian government for not going down the laptop path, but if they could better explain just what they hell they have made, everybody would be grateful.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Forget The $100 PC; India Now Working On A $10 PC... Or Not

from the take-that-negroponte dept

Over the years, we've pointed out some of the more ridiculous aspects of the One Laptop Per Child program (originally known as the $100 PC). While the cause is quite admirable, the project's founder, Nicholas Negroponte has taken a rather strange way to get there. Rather than letting the competitive free market get us to a point where a $100 laptop is feasible, he would attack anyone who dared to try to create a competing product. Also, much of the OLPC was developed very much as a top down project -- rather than opening it up to various participants to look at different options for making things even better or cheaper.

In fact, when the initial designs came down, the countries that were supposed to be all excited about the OLPC, such as India, weren't particularly excited -- turning down a chance to participate in the OLPC program (though, it has run some small scale tests). Now, however, India claims that it's working on its own cheap laptop: and it'll be a $10 PC instead of $100 (and, really, the OLPC is more like $200 anyway). It's not clear how India plans to create such a cheap PC, and the article notes there's a decent chance it won't really be $10 -- but a subsidized $10. Still, one doubts that Negroponte will be very happy about this, despite the fact that it advances his vision, if not his implementation. Update: Well, well, well. Now Indian officials are claiming they misspoke, and the $10 laptop will actually be a $100 laptop. If they can actually get there, more power to them -- because, as we noted, OLPC's $100 laptop is actually $200.

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