Sarbajit thank you for the insight. We've heard a lot of incredibly inexpensive devices, but reading the story shows issues: - $20 is cost after subsidizing by Indian gvt:
He has to repeat himself when he tells me the ultimate price university students will pay for his tablet, after half its cost has been subsidized by the Indian government. It’s $20. - $45 apparently is an available price elsewhere w/o subsidizing: In India, that’s a quarter the cost of competing tablets with identical specifications. Similar tablets in China, the world champion in low-cost components and manufacturing, go for $45 and up, wholesale. Which means the Aakash 2 isn’t just the cheapest fully functional tablet PC on the planet because the Indian government has decided it should be—it’s the cheapest, period. - So its not the break-through after all. Its cost is apparently $50, and $35 to students: http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/18/hands-on-with-the-35-aakash-2-tablet-i-want-one/ - Also, who's paying for the network? They are initially WiFi only. What if you get a cell version? Cell data is pretty expensive in Europe, not sure about India. Ubislate tablets — the commercial version of Aakash — with SIM (data and smartphone functionality) will have a retail price of Rs.2,999 ($54.52) for the GPRS version and Rs.4,499 ($81.80) for the 3G version. The Aakash and Ubislate tablets are also billed as the only Adroid tablets to feature DataWind’s UbiSurfer browser, which is supposed to accelerate web pages load times by factors of 10 – 30x. The UbiSurfer technology is covered by 18 U.S. patents that allow it to deliver web pages on GPRS in about 5 to 7 seconds (compared to many minutes if web pages are accessed on GPRS using traditional means). On 3G, the speed improves to 2 to 3 seconds. GPRS network coverage is available to over 80 percent of the 1.2 billion population of India. Through a special agreement with a network operator, DataWind offers Rs.98 ($1.78)/month for unlimited internet on GPRS. It could be the tech-for-everybody folks have been hoping for, but my guess is the plain old market will build it, not a country. We saw the same for cell phones and now you can buy dirt-cheap "feature phones" with pay-as-you-go SIMs. -- Owen On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 11:19 PM, Sarbajit Roy <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear Rich, > > Let me explain how this "scam" works > > 1) Bribe a Mininster to buy about 20,000 subsidised tablets at US$20 > each. The Minister for Science & Tech (India) gets a lot of publicity > about this "made-in-India" wonder. Nobody looks closely at all the > lowest quality/spec parts outsourced from everywhere else or that > India doesn't actually manufacture anything (except babies) because of > faulty government policies (and leaky condoms made in govt factories > which aren't shut due to Communist Trade Unions). > > 2) Now take bookings for 4 million (?) tablets at US$45 (?) each. > Invest the money in the stock market, real estate, private lending, > currency trading etc. > > 3) With money in hand go find some cheap Chinese manufacturer and > order 100,000 tablets deliberately designed to fail in 2 months. Pump > the media with stories of production problems at Datawind. > > 4) After 3 months prime the media with stories of disastrous quality > of devices and how punters will be lucky to get their money back. > > 5) After about 6 months the punters queue up to get their money > refunded. 30% of the punters fail to cash in their advances. > > PURE PROFIT !!! > > This scam, has been played out many times before with many > products..There's a new sucker born everyday and also a new idiot who > promotes their Ponzi schemes on mailing lists. > > Sarbajit > > NATIONAL CONVENOR > India Against Corruption > www.indiaagainstcorruption.net.in > >
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