In a move which is set to take the wind out of the sails of companies planning to tap the tablet computer market, specially of players who are bundling this device with educational content, the Minister of Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal unveiled a hand-held computer in New Delhi on Thursday which will be available for students from next year at a cost of $35 or roughly Rs 1,500.
The wi-fi-enabled, seven-inch wide touch screen device, which is yet to get a name, is the result of continuous research and development by professors and experts at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras and Bombay branches of the Indian Institutes of Techonolgy (IIT). Interestingly, the same day in New Delhi, another similar tablet device was unveiled by technology player Olive Telecom. Called OlivePad-VT 100, this gadget will be available at Croma stores from next month at Rs 22,000-25,000. At less than 10 per cent of this cost, the device developed by the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) forms part of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT). Under the mission, over 25,000 colleges and 500 universities across the country are being connected through broadband.
Nearly 8,500 colleges have already been connected and free e-content in the form of video lectures of IIT professors on subjects ranging from information technology to engineering is available on YouTube. The low-cost device now developed is aimed at providing technology access to all students at affordable cost and is being subsidized 50 per cent by MHRD through funds available under NMEICT.
Trial And Error
Work on a low-cost computer has been going on for years in the country but never had the price-point of Rs 4,500 or $100 been breached. In developed countries too where cost is not such a big issue and computers mostly sell in the range of $500, companies have developed low-cost models targeted at the developing markets. But none had come up with an option which was anything less than $100. Even the much-touted One Laptop per Child programme of American professor and chairman emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Nicholas Negroponte had failed to bring the cost of the device below $300.
In the absence of any vendor coming up with a viable answer to its requirement, MHRD set up a team of 10 researchers from various institutes, mostly IITs, who were tasked with developing a device which would cost less than $100. The team from Tirupati had last year developed a device for roughly $20 which had created a ripple in the industry but the efforts of the researchers had been more laughed at than appreciated then since there was no screen in that computer and all that one could see in it was a brick kind of a gadget which would beam the content through a projector on a wall. This time however, other teams have come as closest as possible to a ‘real’, ‘workable’ computer which is not only capable of cloud computing, multimedia viewing, net surfing but also supports video web conferencing facility.
Back-End
The net product is the result of many rounds of back and forth, and sourcing of off-the-shelf components from a variety of vendors. Finally created at a price of $70, it will get assistance of $35 from MHRD. According to Sibal, the aim is now to reduce the cost further to $20 and then to $10. “A platform has been created. The field is now open for others to work on this and improve the design to bring the cost further down,” he said.
The device will initially be manufactured outside the country since the capabilities required are not available in India. But vendors and suppliers have already been tied up and the cost of overseas production been built into the estimates, according to Sibal. Once production begins, tie-ups with institutes will follow and the last-mile connectivity will happen by early next year.
Keeping It Simple
Modern computers are extremely powerful machines capable of performing at speeds many times higher than what they used to in the past. Companies such as N-Computing are thriving today simply by developing a device which costs Rs 5,000 and can multiply one computer into as many as 30 simply because an average user consumes less than 5 per cent of the power of the machine.
Developing a low-cost device then meant giving all functionalities but keeping the power low. Hence the latest $35 computer does not have a hard disk but it supports external hard drives and almost all its specifications are upgradable. Designed on an open-source Linux platform, it has an on-screen keyboard, track pad, LCD touch screen and two USB ports.
According to the ministry, many vendors have already offered to supply the equipment at the stipulated price. They certainly can’t beat it so they might as well join it.
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