At 9/21/2001, Frederick Noronha wrote:
>Bangalore, Sep 11 (IANS) Venture capitalists (VCs) are fighting shy of
>funding what appears to be India's most promising invention, the hand-held
>simputer, that can truly take the computer revolution to the masses.
Not a bad thing in the long run -- VC's don't usually deserve the "V" in
their name, they are not much different from the bank, and since last
year, totally averse to risk. Simputer is now offering to write software
too for an application that will require at least 50-100 units. That is
an extremely attractive offer -- not often you find someone willing and
able to even tailor the hardware for you. Plus, if you want an
application that does text-to-speech in an Indian language, this product
has no real competiton. We ourselves are looking to see how the Simputer
might be used to enable disabled children (e.g. those that cannot speak)
to participate in normal schooling, for which a normal PC would be too
expensive and bulky -- the child must ideally not only be able to use it
in class, but on the playground as well...
Arun
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