India unveils prototype of $35 tablet computer

[shakirmoledina]

they said they would reduce the price to 10$... india usually run on cheap market (price wise) hence something like this would be as good as the iPad only tht it would improve on iRobot features such as more memory and all

 

[gov78]

lol man when i was looking at the i was like typical (im indian btw) where such cheap basterds we make a tablet for $35 bucks im getting more and more impressed by how india keep making these thing so cheap sure there not the best but it does the job next we need a $9 smart phone



EDIT: Added a video from yourtube

 

[Jamstruth]

£22?!?! SOLD!!! I'd happily have that for basic internet browsing etc.

 

[juggernaut911]

if you're an ipod appl guru like me

I'd get it and install Damn Small Linux.

 

[BakuFunn]

Wow.

This must have a really crappy processor to cost that little. I really doubt the interface will be lag free, and multi-tasking will be a chore. An Atom is already $20 and almost the bare minimum for modern computing. The case must be of plastic, and the WiFi will be wireless B or such.

Why is technology moving backwards?

It probably has a small internal storage, low-res display, and crappy build quality. For $35, not bad, but for people not in need of crap, I don't know how many of you consider it.

The touchscreen is probably laggy, due to the crap processor, so that rules out some aspects such as fast note taking, but I guess it'll be fine for drawing if you don't care for color quality or accuracy. (Also, laughs from your fellow students.) The low resolution and (assuming) low battery life will also impair your ability to just use it as a sketchpad.

Typing? TYPING? It's a touchscreen computer. You're kidding me. I thought the iPad was already incredibly hard to type on, and this lag will lag your brains back in time. The software obviously will not be as good as Android or iOS. (And Android isn't that great for tablets as of now.)

Sorry, but I don't know why so many of you would consider spending $35 for a piece of plastic crap. You're gonna end up begging for the web page to scroll or trying to type out a sentence in an email. Don't tell me $35 is pocket change either. You can buy a game with that money. (A thing you people say is too damned expensive, just so you remember.)

Go wait for HP's tablet if you're considering a tablet. Go pull a jackson for a old pressure-sensitive digitalizer Wacom if you want to draw. Get a notebook if you want to take notes.

But, who am I to tell you to not buy pieces of shit that you'll tinker with once and leave in the corner trying to forget about the shittyness of it? It's your money.

 

[Jamstruth]

Yeah but its a $35 computer. My phone cost more than that. Yeah it won't be very good but its insanely cheap. It just shows that you can build one a real budget.
$35 is of course the wholesale value of all the parts, I'd imagine at retail it would be at least $50

 

[BakuFunn]

Yeah but its a $35 computer. My phone cost more than that. Yeah it won't be very good but its insanely cheap. It just shows that you can build one a real budget.
$35 is of course the wholesale value of all the parts, I'd imagine at retail it would be at least $50

This only shows how cheap yester-yesteryear's electronics have become. Just try doing modern computing on the first Pentium.
You can pick up even cheaper computers on eBay, with some better pieces of crap going as low as $15. So what if it's cheap? Everything can go cheaper. It's fine for the technologically impaired countries, but for people like us?

My first cell phone can probably beat it in benchmark tests.

 

[macgeek417]

Who said it is x86? ARM CPUs are pretty cheap - a SCDS2 is only $35, and that is 400MHz + other stuff. I imagine it's CPU cost what, like $10?

And the internet on the 133MHz DSi isnt all that bad!

 

[Jamstruth]

Yeah but its a $35 computer. My phone cost more than that. Yeah it won't be very good but its insanely cheap. It just shows that you can build one a real budget.
$35 is of course the wholesale value of all the parts, I'd imagine at retail it would be at least $50

This only shows how cheap yester-yesteryear's electronics have become. Just try doing modern computing on the first Pentium.
You can pick up even cheaper computers on eBay, with some better pieces of crap going as low as $15. So what if it's cheap? Everything can go cheaper. It's fine for the technologically impaired countries, but for people like us?

My first cell phone can probably beat it in benchmark tests.

Because touch screens, wi-fi and decent small LCD screens are so old. Fine if you think it will be crap. The only spec they've given is that it will have 2GB of RAM. We don't know processor speed (though I suspect 1GHz and below is the range we're talking) and we definitely don't know the Wi-Fi. The point is its a break-through in the price barrier. Tablets before now have been really expensive and often not that good, if this thing is ok and really cheap then there's no excuse for any other tablet manufacturers.

 

[fgghjjkll]

Yeah but its a $35 computer. My phone cost more than that. Yeah it won't be very good but its insanely cheap. It just shows that you can build one a real budget.
$35 is of course the wholesale value of all the parts, I'd imagine at retail it would be at least $50

This only shows how cheap yester-yesteryear's electronics have become. Just try doing modern computing on the first Pentium.
You can pick up even cheaper computers on eBay, with some better pieces of crap going as low as $15. So what if it's cheap? Everything can go cheaper. It's fine for the technologically impaired countries, but for people like us?

My first cell phone can probably beat it in benchmark tests.

Because touch screens, wi-fi and decent small LCD screens are so old. Fine if you think it will be crap. The only spec they've given is that it will have 2GB of RAM. We don't know processor speed (though I suspect 1GHz and below is the range we're talking) and we definitely don't know the Wi-Fi. The point is its a break-through in the price barrier. Tablets before now have been really expensive and often not that good, if this thing is ok and really cheap then there's no excuse for any other tablet manufacturers.

for $35, i'm also worried about build quality. Sure touch screens (Let's say resistive) + wifi (Let's say 802.11b only) and lcd screen (One that has a horribly low dpi) can be pretty cheap to produce but how long can it last before the the touch screen stops responding, the wifi chip frys itself and the lcd screen breaks after a few knocks and drops? I'd rather pay for a quality device than something that is very, very cheaply built.

 

[Veho]

$35 is the manufacture cost. Can you guarantee your own tablet's manufacture cost isn't $35, the price difference is only the profit margin for the over 9000 resellers between the manufacturer and the customer, and the fact that you paid $200 for it doesn't mean it's better, it only means you're really really gullible?

 

[fgghjjkll]

$35 is the manufacture cost. Can you guarantee your own tablet's manufacture cost isn't $35, the price difference is only the profit margin for the over 9000 resellers between the manufacturer and the customer, and the fact that you paid $200 for it doesn't mean it's better, it only means you're really really gullible?

And can you prove that your hardware isn't $35? At the end of the day, it all goes down to the compny. Are they reputable manufacturers? Do the resellers sell it at a decent price? It's all chance really. But that $35 Tablet, if you take away the profits the may make, it could be worth alot less than i really is...

 

[Veho]

But that $35 Tablet, if you take away the profits they may make it could be worth alot less than i really is...

But it's a non-profit project. The $35 really are the manufacture cost; it will be government subsidized and the end price for the students will be $20.

 

[FAST6191]

If it can summon a USB host I am sold, x86 compatible would be nice but on the other hand x86 is awful for a lot of things (virtualisation of an on, media even with MMX and the like, massive parallelism and more) so I am happy to lose that if a better architecture is used. If they provide decent hardware diagrams (I have seen a few things come out of India like this in the past) I will buy one on principle alone.
Equally I have done a lot in low performance (low electrical power) computing lately across various fields and I guess many of you would be shocked as to what can actually be done especially with things like USB hardware decoders/enhancements (see my ragging on X86 earlier).
I know it is somewhat out of this price range but have a look at some of the stuff things like the beagleboard are doing these days.

ram prices- ram is the ultimate in consumer products right now it seems (nobody is upgrading whole machines for various reasons and a ram update is simple and often incredibly effective- these last few months I myself and I know of many others that have bumped ram from 512 or worse 256 into sensible regions, retailers have taken note of this).
Equally you might be looking at some of the latest and greatest stuff- as others have said those old fabs for older tech still exist and still pump out good hardware (setup costs for a silicon foundry are a sizeable chunk of the GDP for most countries and given new ones are set up for every new generation......).

Out of the box it not being brilliant- there is a reason we modify stuff on this site.

"only" 802.11b- leaving aside the readily available nature of 802.11g grade chips these days your ISP manages what speed now?

Screens- should they provide a means of docking much will be forgiven I guess (OLED retrofit would be great). Equally people do forgive a lot on the screen front (some of the trash I have to deal with/see go out the door would cause a little heart murmur were I forced to use it on a daily basis).
Touchscreen- as long as they do not try anything too fancy (something like the DS touchscreen tech would be great) I can see it being damn near bulletproof.

My only real concern is battery life but that is easily solved if you know what you are doing.

@fgghjjkll search for bill of materials and append your chosen consumer device to it. Consider also on top of this that the makers do not own everything from the ground up (patent/license/group membership costs make for great profits for those that control them and those costs get given directly to the end user) and also bill for software, support and beyond.

 

[BakuFunn]

Yeah but its a $35 computer. My phone cost more than that. Yeah it won't be very good but its insanely cheap. It just shows that you can build one a real budget.
$35 is of course the wholesale value of all the parts, I'd imagine at retail it would be at least $50

This only shows how cheap yester-yesteryear's electronics have become. Just try doing modern computing on the first Pentium.
You can pick up even cheaper computers on eBay, with some better pieces of crap going as low as $15. So what if it's cheap? Everything can go cheaper. It's fine for the technologically impaired countries, but for people like us?

My first cell phone can probably beat it in benchmark tests.

Because touch screens, wi-fi and decent small LCD screens are so old. Fine if you think it will be crap. The only spec they've given is that it will have 2GB of RAM. We don't know processor speed (though I suspect 1GHz and below is the range we're talking) and we definitely don't know the Wi-Fi. The point is its a break-through in the price barrier. Tablets before now have been really expensive and often not that good, if this thing is ok and really cheap then there's no excuse for any other tablet manufacturers.

Why don't you look at it from a different perspective? The DS Lite costs roughly $90 for all of its parts. The specs of it are pretty crap, no? It drives ridiculously low resolution screens and can barely handle computing in a modern context. Try to reduce its price to $35. You'll end up cutting all the frills off the DS, and you'll even need a huge resistive touchscreen, which will cost quite a lot unless you get one with an incredibly horrible resolution and color quality. You'll need a last-generation wireless card to cut a few dollars off, and cheaply made plastic as well. I think I'd be scared of it falling apart in my hands. The processor will definitely be crap.

By the way, the 2GB is hard drive space (probably cheap flash memory)

 

[Splych]

35$? Something, or alot of things must have been removed, like the A4 chip, which means that it will be really slow and won't support any demanding games and I'm almost sure that the touch screen is different, and may not be responsive. For all we know, it might not even have wi-fi, but an ethernet port.

why are you expecting it to play games? it is designed for students in school . sure they'll have thoughts to play games, but honestly, that's not what it was designed for.

okay ethernet port is decent . but it just being that cheap, being touch screen, is enough for a steal. you can't get a computer that can do the simplest of things and be portable for that price so why not get it?

 

[Veho]

The DS Lite costs roughly $90 for all of its parts.

Are you sure? Where did you get that number from?

 

[BakuFunn]

The DS Lite costs roughly $90 for all of its parts.

Are you sure? Where did you get that number from?

Link
Seems right.

 

[BlackDave]

eh $35 I would buy it just cuz I can afford it

Even though my phone probably does better already

 

[Veho]

Link
Seems right.

No it doesn't. I could build a DS Lite from replacement parts for $90, I doubt Nintendo is paying that much per unit. It sounds more like wild guessing than a serious analysis.

And why use a DS as an example? It was overpriced from the beginning. Why not use other tablets for comparison? This one is $100. And that's the retail price. Probably costs $60 to manufacture.

Electronics are dirt cheap nowadays, you can get a decent powered CPU for a few bucks, design an embedded solution around it for a few more bucks, and you get bulk discounts you wouldn't believe if you order several million units at once. The greatest cost is the screen, and screens are getting cheaper as well. Develop a custom OS for it and you'll get more out of the hardware than you would with some existing, all-purpose OS (*cough*Android*cough). You could easily get a tablet well capable (as opposed to "sort of capable, given enough time") of text processing, basic web, YouTube and video conferencing, for $35.

Remember, this tablet doesn't have to be the "Jack of all trades, master of none" like commercial tablets. It doesn't have to have powerful hardware. Everything it needs to do can be done with dirt-cheap low-power dedicated coprocessors. The downside: it won't be able to do anything other than what it was designed for, for example, games. The upside: it will do the things it's supposed to do pretty well, and it will only cost $35.