India recently unveiled a prototype of a $35 touchscreen tablet computer which they plan to mass produce next year. The total cost? $35. The tablet pc will run on Linux, has no internal storage but can store data via memory card. It also has a built-in word processor, video conferencing capabilities, a web browser and last but not least, it can also run on solar power.

Running Linux and using external memory (memory card) enabled the developers to keep the price low. The total cost to build this touchscreen tablet computer including the motherboard, memory, display, etc is around $35 but the Indian government plans to subsidize the cost of these tablets so students and low-income families can avail of them for only $20. Further plans include dropping the price to $10.

At $35, this tablet pc is much better than the $100 laptop developed by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) for the One Laptop One Child Program. If the Indian government will be successful in producing this tablet pc, it would do a lot of good for the students and low-income families in India. Aside from that, this can also be a source of income for the government if they decide to mass produce it and export it to other countries.

I’m sure it will not only be students or low-income families who will be interested in these type of tablet computers. Business and other organizations would definitely be interested in a touchscreen tablet computer that mobile workers can use for word processing, video conferencing and other cloud-based applications that costs less than 10% of the cost of an Apple iPad.

What do you think of India’s $35 tablet pc? Would you be interested in buying one? Aside from students and low-income families, who do you think can benefit from a low cost tablet pc like this? Please share your thoughts.

via BBC News

[image source: AFP]

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