What happened to the $20 laptop?

[DesiGuy]

The week began with a great story. The Indian government was going to build a $20 (or maybe even $10) laptop, finally bringing cheap computing to the masses, in a manner which had eluded projects like One Laptop Per Child.

The only problem was that the "$20 laptop" turned out to be no such thing - it's not a laptop and it's not clear exactly what it is, when it will appear or what it wil cost. But the world's technology journalists fell for the story - along with the BBC - so how did that happen?

Financial Times articleIt was all triggered by an article in the Financial Times on Monday. This claimed that the device would be launched at an education event on Tuesday, and compared the $20 laptop to India's $2000 car - although that too has so far failed to appear, some years after it was promised. The FT's article went round the world at the speed of light, and my editors - and I suspect others - were soon asking why we hadn't got the story.

But on the Tuesday, when the press conference happened in the town of Tirupati, the miracle gizmo turned out to be a prototype of a handheld device, rather than a laptop. The aim of the device, under development by local universities, was to use technology to bring education to millions of new students across India.

And the price? Well, that was pretty unclear. It might be $20, it might be $10, depending on production volumes, and presumably the level of government subsidy. The only photo to have emerged appears to show a solid white rectangular object, without a display or a keyboard.

I've spoken to the author of the FT article, James Lamont, who told me that reports about a laptop had actually surfaced first in the Indian press last week after a briefing by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. It appears that the ministry official, perhaps not technically aware, used the word laptop in that briefing to describe an e-learning device.

That was enough to turn an interesting educational initiative by the Indian government into a story that sparked worldwide interest amongst the techie community. Now it has turned out to be less than it appeared, many of my fellow journalists and bloggers have reacted with contempt. Engadget talked of "purposeful misinformation" by politicians seeking re-election, while the Times of India quoted a university researcher as saying "The entire world was watching. This act.....has shamed the nation."

But perhaps this is a little unfair. The Indian government, James Lamont told me, is faced with a massive educational challenge, needing to create as many as 1500 new universities over the next six years. It seems to be deadly serious about using technology to bridge its educational gap.

The price of computing is coming down - though $20 seems a bit of a stretch, with component makers rushing to explain that you won't even get a screen for that price. And aren't we getting hung up on the idea of a laptop? It is mobile phones that are really proving to be the transformational technology in developing countries. If Indian researchers can come up with a $20 mobile internet device to put millions of students online, then they really will deserve global headlines.


BBC - dot.life: What happened to the $20 laptop?


P.S. (It's a BLOG, So you people have the option to agree or disagree).

 

[shrivatsa]

do visit
http://www.defence.pk/forums/members-club/66678-india-unveils-30-laptop.html

 

[somebozo]

Shame on Indian media..once again.!

 

[into the wild]

its not 20, its 30, and its not even a laptop!!

 

[somebozo]

well to me it looks like just an ebook and internet browing tabliod. Just a tad cheaper than usual cost of $50-$60 for Chinese made.

Indian media has a habbit of dramatizing things. They must have thought replacing few words here and there wont make difference for a large base of "India pride" fanboys who are technologiclaly ignorant.

Source: http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2009/02/04/10-dollar-laptop-costs-more-isnt-a-laptop/
When is a $10 laptop not a $10 laptop? When it costs $30 and is actually a storage device.

Word about the $10 laptop that was expected to be unveiled in India yesterday appears to have gone wrong somewhere along the line.

It seems that it will actually be a storage device that the can be used to provide easy access to information that’s already loaded on it. It’s also now expected to cost $30.

It measures 10-inches long by 5-inches wide and you will still need a laptop to access anything stored on it, which means it’s not much use on its own. It could still lead to the development of a super cheap computer, but for now it looks like the OLPC will still be the cheapest laptop on the block.

-

 

[RobbieS]

well to me it looks like just an ebook and internet browing tabliod. Just a tad cheaper than usual cost of $50-$60 for Chinese made.

Indian media has a habbit of dramatizing things. They must have thought replacing few words here and there wont make difference for a large base of "India pride" fanboys who are technologiclaly ignorant.

So apart from the fact that the media got the name and price wrong, what else is their fault? So its more of a tablet/iPad rather than a laptop.

What we are forgetting is that even at $30, it can be an amazing educational tool. I think the govt. can easily afford equipping millions of students with this device (provided it is worthy) and bridge the educational divide in rural and urban India.

And unsurprisingly most of the the hate has been directed by the Pakistani members, who don't seem to see the positives but as usual are blinded by hate and hell bent on damning this piece of technological advancement.

 

[Luftwaffe]

somebozo...exactly I explain in other thread about this that even if you chip in low cost old systems old memory-ram other processor for netbook/laptop and vice versa it would strictly cost $100.00 and people were thanking poster against me.

Thing is I appreciate india's step to give distribute affordable laptops or tablets to their student for education and truly it would transform educational arena of india.

"Not necessarily, If the system is running on an embedded processor it is possible it might cost around 80 to 90 dollars

Did i not say to the poster that it would cost $100 or beyond roughly. "face palm"

however if economy of scale is put into perspective then its possible

Its not about possible and economy its about the stuff you add in to the so called laptop and that stuff a manufacturer would never give you free but on a price even if i half the price a simple old laptop ddr ram costs 20 dollars and that is after being 50% discount

to sell these machines for 30$ maybe for a loss.

There you go so the answer of the poster is there...you stuff the tablet or laptop with 100 dollars of stuff and sell it for 30 dollars with a loss of 70-90 dollars. (if its to sacrifice profit for the cause of education very good other wise its a lose lose business)

They may not be fast or capable but if they will provide a poor man with a word processor and someway to connect to the internet then its a great achievement."

Even for a tablet or netbook the baseline is 1GB lets half it to 512MB yes than its a workable solution to run simple word processor and simple programs.
How would a poor student connect to internet that cost on average 500 rupees a month in india.

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

I hate to the pessimist but Lets have some salt as well


Why the $35 tablet will never exist


Why does the media fall for the same hoax again and again?
By Mike Elgan
July 23, 2010 03:12 PM ET


Computerworld - "India unveils $35 computer for students," says CNN.com. "India unveils prototype for $35 touch-screen computer," reports BBC News. "India to provide $35 computing device to students," says BusinessWeek.

Wow! That's great! Too bad it will never exist. That this announcement is reported straight and without even a hint of skepticism is incomprehensible to me.

India's human resource ministry announced this week a "breakthrough" solar-powered tablet computer that would cost only $35 in "early 2011." Reports say the tablet was developed at various Indian universities. "We have made the breakthrough and are now ready to capture the market," said Mamta Varma, a spokeswoman for the human resource development ministry.

In the first phase of the rollout, a million tablets would be provided to university students. In later phases, the program would be expanded to primary and secondary students. Millions of students would be using these cheap tablets within a year.
Tablet war

Officials even hinted that in the future the price could drop to $10 per tablet.

The project appears to target a similar demographic and purpose as the One Laptop per Child program, which is still struggling to bring the cost of its nonsolar, non-touch-screen computer down to its goal of $100.
What's really going on

Because the mainstream media is too gullible, shameless and lazy to report this story with even the slightest hint of skepticism, let me spell out what is almost certainly going on here.

Indian politicians have discovered that announcing technological "breakthroughs" that leverage Indian engineering prowess to deliver computers to everybody helps get press and win votes. It's a cheap gimmick that works because of the gullibility of the media.

While the press pays attention to the Big Announcement, hardly any media outlets notice later when nothing ever comes of it. Why? Because a headline with "$35 tablet" in it brings traffic, eyeballs and readers, whereas a headline with "media duped again" brings only shame. So they go for the glory but omit the shame.

For example: In February last year, the Indian government announced a $10 to $20 laptop called the Shaksat. Like the $35 tablet, the Shaksat had 2GB of RAM, but details on other components were impossible to come by.

It was to be rolled out in six months and was to be used by millions of students across India, transforming the Indian educational system and economy. So, where is the Shaksat?

In 1999, a group of Indian scientists and engineers developed a low-cost computer for the poor called the Simputer. It was a Linux-based pen-and-touch tablet with text-to-speech capability. The Simputer was announced with great fanfare by the Indian government. The goal was to sell 50,000, but only 4,000 were ever sold.

Are you detecting a pattern here? Pandering politicians hold up a prototype and proclaim a "breakthrough." A new computer, developed by students and professors at India's prestigious engineering universities, has "cracked the code" for low-cost computing for the masses.

Very soon these devices will be pushed out to Indian students, transforming the educational levels of the country and providing the tools for Indian technological leadership in the future.

Everybody wants to believe this story. But that doesn't make it true.
Why the $35 Indian tablet will never exist

India itself doesn't build touch screens. They would have to be imported from China or Taiwan. The current price for this component alone exceeds $35. Like touch screens, most solar panels are also built in China. But even the cheapest ones powerful enough to charge a tablet battery are more expensive to manufacture than $35.
Tablet war

Plus you need to pay for the 2GB of RAM, the case and the rest of the computer electronics. Even if you factor in Moore's Law and assume the absolute cheapest rock-bottom junk components, a solar touch tablet with 2GB of RAM cannot be built anytime soon for less than $100.

More to the point, no country in the world can build a cheaper computer than China can. The entire tech sector in China is optimized for ultra-low-cost manufacturing. All the engineering brilliance in India can't change that.

Even if Moore's Law unexpectedly accelerated, and India was miraculously able to build a $35 tablet next year, there would be 100 Chinese companies selling tablets for $20 and the Indian initiative would be pointless anyway.

This is largely what happened with the Simputer. By the time the consortium managed to get the device through the manufacturing process, the open market was producing devices that were far cheaper and better.

So in addition to this latest engineering "breakthrough" announced by the Indian government, they would also have to make a breakthrough in the ability of governments to produce cheaper computers than the open market, an event that has never before occurred -- and probably never will.
The awful truth

The $35 tablet announcement was nothing more than shameless political opportunism. The world's media were suckered (again) -- hook, line and sinker.

The whole affair is a shameful, disgusting spectacle that represents everything that's wrong with politics, the media and public gullibility in the new idiocracy.

Cheap computers are nice. But what we really need is a little common sense.

Mike Elgan writes about technology and global tech culture. Contact Mike at mike.elgan@elgan.com, follow him on Twitter or his blog, The Raw Feed.

Why the $35 tablet will never exist - Computerworld

 

[Luftwaffe]

In the end the product would not be manufactured and sold for which it was manufactured $30.00 dollars but the price could be reduced to $30.00 actually..
So its all about reducing the price and selling it at $30.00 not that the product components are of the same price.

 

[gowthamraj]

Good article. Atleast govt should fix price of 100$ and make some other features

 

[sanjubaba]

DUMP FIRST CHECK THE DATE OF ARTICAL

IT's 09:40 UK time, Friday, 6 February 2009


MOD PLZ CLOSE THE THREAD....Now dissussing on this is just a waste of time...
INDIA Has done it...

 

[Guynextdoor]

The week began with a great story. The Indian government was going to build a $20 (or maybe even $10) laptop, finally bringing cheap computing to the masses, in a manner which had eluded projects like One Laptop Per Child.

The only problem was that the "$20 laptop" turned out to be no such thing - it's not a laptop and it's not clear exactly what it is, when it will appear or what it wil cost. But the world's technology journalists fell for the story - along with the BBC - so how did that happen?

Financial Times articleIt was all triggered by an article in the Financial Times on Monday. This claimed that the device would be launched at an education event on Tuesday, and compared the $20 laptop to India's $2000 car - although that too has so far failed to appear, some years after it was promised. The FT's article went round the world at the speed of light, and my editors - and I suspect others - were soon asking why we hadn't got the story.

But on the Tuesday, when the press conference happened in the town of Tirupati, the miracle gizmo turned out to be a prototype of a handheld device, rather than a laptop. The aim of the device, under development by local universities, was to use technology to bring education to millions of new students across India.

And the price? Well, that was pretty unclear. It might be $20, it might be $10, depending on production volumes, and presumably the level of government subsidy. The only photo to have emerged appears to show a solid white rectangular object, without a display or a keyboard.

I've spoken to the author of the FT article, James Lamont, who told me that reports about a laptop had actually surfaced first in the Indian press last week after a briefing by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. It appears that the ministry official, perhaps not technically aware, used the word laptop in that briefing to describe an e-learning device.

That was enough to turn an interesting educational initiative by the Indian government into a story that sparked worldwide interest amongst the techie community. Now it has turned out to be less than it appeared, many of my fellow journalists and bloggers have reacted with contempt. Engadget talked of "purposeful misinformation" by politicians seeking re-election, while the Times of India quoted a university researcher as saying "The entire world was watching. This act.....has shamed the nation."

But perhaps this is a little unfair. The Indian government, James Lamont told me, is faced with a massive educational challenge, needing to create as many as 1500 new universities over the next six years. It seems to be deadly serious about using technology to bridge its educational gap.

The price of computing is coming down - though $20 seems a bit of a stretch, with component makers rushing to explain that you won't even get a screen for that price. And aren't we getting hung up on the idea of a laptop? It is mobile phones that are really proving to be the transformational technology in developing countries. If Indian researchers can come up with a $20 mobile internet device to put millions of students online, then they really will deserve global headlines.


BBC - dot.life: What happened to the $20 laptop?


P.S. (It's a BLOG, So you people have the option to agree or disagree).

Dude what is that white rectangular box? That was no way related to the press coonference. Plus, the article is factually wrong. India does build solar power panels. Other components- maybe not.

 

[Guynextdoor]

In the end the product would not be manufactured and sold for which it was manufactured $30.00 dollars but the price could be reduced to $30.00 actually..
So its all about reducing the price and selling it at $30.00 not that the product components are of the same price.

Oh I'm ok even if it's subsidized 70% and given away for $35. In Tamil Nadu, the govt. is giving away COLOR TVs FREE for all the poor people. I guess something like this will be way better than that stuff for ordinary people. I'm really not stuck up on costs. Most people aren't looking at the big picture. The point is introducing computing on a large scale will transform India's education. Subsidizing conventional machines will be very uneconomical. Have we now worked out a package that will fit all requirements? Yeah. And the attepmt can be made.

I'd say wait up for more details on how they actually want to achieve the cost target. These aren't just human resource ministry people. Also note that there are four REALLY big names attached to the project- 3 IITs and IISC. The costing and usage (how to get poor ppl internet etc.) was most probably indicated by them and they are not to be taken lightly. Let's wait and watch.

 

[Skies]

I think it's a big mobile cell, not laptop.

 

[DesiGuy]

DUMP FIRST CHECK THE DATE OF ARTICAL

IT's 09:40 UK time, Friday, 6 February 2009


MOD PLZ CLOSE THE THREAD....Now dissussing on this is just a waste of time...
INDIA Has done it...

When others can open threads about events or topic that happened thousands of years ago or perhaps millions, than why can't I open a thread on topic that is just few months old???

just, kidding. but yea, i also think it's not worth posting, so MOD may delete if he doesn't like it .