India to sell $35 dollar Linux Tablet, competes with Ipad

**jfreak_** · July 31st, 2010

Originally Posted by jfreak_

Let me get this straight, as a student living in India , I am 99% sure that this tablet is NOT going to be sold in the open market. It will be in all probability be distributed to students directly from schools or colleges in a tightly controlled environment where there will subsidies even on the 35$ price tag. In case some of you may not be aware, 35$ is still a decent amount of money for an average student especially in the rural areas which are much more backward than the cities.
Ah yes one more thing, almost everything in India is behind schedule, and with the government set to slash the funding for education because of the current financial mess in the next five year plan its hard to see from where the funding will come from (definitely not from the private sector as the thingy is to be sold under subsidy).

Hmm, however I won't rule out black-marketing either, which is also rather common here.

**Nick_Jinn** · July 31st, 2010

Originally Posted by jfreak_

Let me get this straight, as a student living in India , I am 99% sure that this tablet is NOT going to be sold in the open market. It will be in all probability be distributed to students directly from schools or colleges in a tightly controlled environment where there will subsidies even on the 35$ price tag. In case some of you may not be aware, 35$ is still a decent amount of money for an average student especially in the rural areas which are much more backward than the cities.
Ah yes one more thing, almost everything in India is behind schedule, and with the government set to slash the funding for education because of the current financial mess in the next five year plan its hard to see from where the funding will come from (definitely not from the private sector as the thingy is to be sold under subsidy).

Consider however that the tablet could be a complete replacement for physical textbooks. It might actually be a cheaper replacement compared to textbooks.

**irv** · July 31st, 2010

Originally Posted by Nick_Jinn

Consider however that the tablet could be a complete replacement for physical textbooks. It might actually be a cheaper replacement compared to textbooks.

I agree with you on the cost of textbooks. The difference in price of just one of my commentary's in ebook verse printed edition was $20. It wouldn't take many savings like this to make up the difference in cost.

**papangul** · August 12th, 2010

Latest News:

India's HRD minister appeared in a tv show "Gadget Guru" along with a protype tablet yesterday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stNSPWixhUQ

I request the mods to change the title of this thread, because it's misleading("to sell @ $35" part). The retail price will be more than that.

**earthpigg** · August 12th, 2010

i enjoyed that interview papangul, thanks for posting it.

**BuffaloX** · August 12th, 2010

I read somewhere it has 3G, is that true? Because the Ipad is $130 extra with 3G, makes you think doesn't it?

**papangul** · August 13th, 2010

Originally Posted by BuffaloX

I read somewhere it has 3G, is that true? Because the Ipad is $130 extra with 3G, makes you think doesn't it?

Yes, it has 3g and more. It has android 2.1 which the ipad obviously doesn't have.

The 6 min video I linked to in my above post contains all the information about it.

**BuffaloX** · August 13th, 2010

My point was that this device has 3G and cost about 35$ to make for the entire device.
While Apple charge 130$ extra just for the 3G option.

**murderslastcrow** · August 13th, 2010

Android 2.1?? HOLY CRAP, dude. This is amazing, and most likely not true. If they keep it under 35 dollars I'll probably explode. Something tells me Android's gonna' be the next Windows in its growth and pervasiveness. You know, if getting 200,000 new users every day hasn't already shown that.

Heck, what's keeping these things from replacing desktops for the majority of non-developing, non-creating, non-gaming computer users? Especially with the spot-on voice recognition? Seriously, this stuff's crazy.

**Nick_Jinn** · August 13th, 2010

Arm Processors are probably going to be the near future of mobile computing, not Atoms. Intel and Windows are going to be left out in the cold on that one.....maybe Intel will come out with something, but Windows is going to take a hit.

Desktops will still be sporting Intel/AMD and Windows, but I think more people are going to want compatibility with their mobile devices, and as they learn these Linux and Unix based operating systems then it wont seem so foreign to them any more.

I hear Google has a desktop OS under its belt besides Android and and Chrome, but similar to Android.....If anyone has a copy of the Google version of Linux that they use at work, I would love to get a copy of it. They dont distribute it to the public.