India Looks To Produce World's First $10 Laptop

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Forget the one hundred dollar laptop. India has bigger, but cheaper, plans. Ten times cheaper to be exact: India's Ministry of Human Resource Development is spearheading the project, with help from Semiconductor Complex, a state-sponsored designer and manufacturer of integrated circuits. Officials from those organizations are presently weighing system designs submitted by an engineering student from India's Vellore Institute of Technology and a researcher from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. The Times of India on Friday reported that the efforts thus far have yielded designs for a laptop that would cost about $47, while a $10 system remains the ultimate goal.

Last year, Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child Organization submitted a proposal to the Indian government under which the group would have worked to produce laptops for Indian students starting at $100. Indian officials at the time criticized the proposal as insufficiently mature to be taken seriously and rejected it.

News source: InformationWeek

#1 Alvi 84 on 04 May 2007 - 18:55

#2 guruparan on 04 May 2007 - 19:10

really a kind of just statistical information....government will take over the EXCESS of financial burdens & offer the 10$ laptop to the rural students (something for a subsidiary cost)

Our state Chief minister promised 1 ACRE LAND FREE for POOR FARMERS & FREE TELEVISION (color tv +remote) too, its some government takes the loss & there are lot of tax revenues pouring & if politicians use here in a good manner(without bribe) these sorts of stuff are well good!

(1 reply) #3 xtreme35967 on 04 May 2007 - 19:23

God why can't we get those $50 laptops in the US

#3.1 faraaz on 05 May 2007 - 09:32

because they are too slow

(1 reply) #4 sunbiz_3000 on 04 May 2007 - 19:26

The $100 laptops would in the end sell at $135 or $140 coz they set the target as $100...

So I guess the cunning plan that these guys have is ...they gonna aim for $10, make it for $50 and sell it at $100.. Now u ask me where did the remaining $50 go?? Its surely gonna go to the politician's pocket

#4.1 Swordnyx on 04 May 2007 - 21:08

It's not anything better than any other government. Tell me if you know any, I'll give you a hundred years.

#5 Foub on 04 May 2007 - 19:43

A $10 computer would be like a Sinclair ZX81.

#6 Julius Caro on 04 May 2007 - 20:46

Are those actual low cost x386-compatible PCs or just some sort of cheap laptops?
Can they at least run linux?

#7 Swordnyx on 04 May 2007 - 20:47

Nice.

#8 tiagosilva29 on 04 May 2007 - 21:05

I'd buy that for a dollar!

#9 Ð€VÌ£ Ïñ Ðì§gûï§€ on 04 May 2007 - 21:50

go india!!

(1 reply) #10 justlooking on 04 May 2007 - 21:58

And they'll even throw in a Kashmir carpet and autographed copy of the warrant out for Richard Gere's arrest.

#10.1 timdafweak on 04 May 2007 - 23:05

Quote - (justlooking said @ #10)

ROFL

#11 Samboini on 04 May 2007 - 22:13

Isn't the $100 laptop closer to $200 now?

#12 cardg on 04 May 2007 - 23:05

Just hope it isnt based on more exploration of work...

(2 replies) #13 neufuse on 04 May 2007 - 23:26

never gona happen... a printed circuit board alone is at least 50 cents per board... a screen would be more then $10 alone... even small LCD screens in black and white cost a good bit... plastic is expensive...

#13.1 Swordnyx on 05 May 2007 - 00:10

I'm going to laugh in your face when they do.

#13.2 Pallab on 05 May 2007 - 02:34

I also agree with you. It just seems to cheap. 10$= less than Rs500. Heck, it had cost me Rs400, just to get a PSU.

#14 kiran_aryan on 05 May 2007 - 12:04

chak de india!

#15 [deXter] on 05 May 2007 - 18:42

I really doubt the success of these so called cheap or "poor-man's" PCs. So far, none of the efforts have been really successful. The Simputer was hailed as the device to bridge the digital divide. It received a lot of media attention and was quite hyped. In the end it had a price of around $300 - $480. At that price, one could buy a cheap laptop or a full-featured Dell Pocket PC which did more and was certainly much more appealing than the Simputer. For all that hype, only 4000 units were sold, which was nowhere near its modest target of 50,000 units.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simputer#Success_Inhibitors

I too think $10 is a bit too unrealistic. My scientific calculator itself cost $15.

Only time will tell if this project manages to live up to the hype. No prizes for guessing if it will. My advise for them - deliver first, hype later.

#16 +Cy Bones on 08 May 2007 - 11:59

I think the $10 price tag will have a huge dependancy on the number of units ordered...

If there is a massive production run the current sub $50 cost could be reduced, however I do doubt that $10 is possible without a subsidy / grant of some sort.

On the whole, a good move.

I can't help but think aall of these initiatives are missing a trick though - I expect that a lot of units could be sold in the Western world (with a higher price tag) as a portable note-taking PDA type machine...

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