The government of India has developed a tablet PC that they hope to make accessible to millions of residents for only $35. Kapil Sibal, minister for human resource development, showed off the tablet at a press conference in New Delhi this week.
The tablet was developed by faculty and students at top technological institutes in India, in collaboration with the Indian government’s National Mission on Education. The low price is largely due to the team using all open-source technology for the project.
With only a memory card for storage, no hard drive included, the $35 tablet is intended to be a cloud-based machine. It will run a Linux Operating system that includes a web browser, word processing software, PDF reader, and video conferencing application. The current configuration also includes 2GB RAM, wi-fi, a USB port, a touch screen, and can use solar power for recharging. There is no word on the display resolution.
The device still has no name and no manufacturer. Despite this fact, the Indian government hopes to have the devices on the market sometime in 2011. Mamta Varma, spokeswoman for the human-resource-development ministry announced that the government intends to have one million of the tablets in universities first, and then plans to expand to primary and secondary schools.
Varma also stated that $35 isn’t the lowest price that is possible with the machine, and hopes that manufacturers will see the project and jump on board to help. “If more innovations will emerge, the cost of the gadget might be further reduced to $20 or $10,” she said.
I sincerely hope that this project takes off as well as the Indian government hopes. While the OLPC tablet prototype is also a great project, $75 may still be out of reach for many families in third-world nations. Sure, a $35 tablet isn’t going to have all the features comparable to an iPad or the Windows 7 tablets that are due to hit the market this year, but it should do just fine for getting information and educational resources to the children of India.
