$35 Tablet From India

Updated CatRambo 0 393 Views

India's Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has announced that the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science has developed a tablet with a retail price of $35 (approximately 1600 rupees), beating the price of MIT's .

The Linux-based prototype performs Internet browsing, word processing, and video conferencing and offers wifi, 2 GB memory, and USB ports. It can even be converted to run on solar power (at an extra cost). The tablet has no hard disk, but instead uses a memory card, much like a mobile phone.

India hopes to find a manufacturer for the device in order to have it on the market by next year and to even drop the price to under $20 per unit. The development is part of their current education technology initiative, which has been working to bring Internet connectivity to India's colleges and universities.

[youtube]Ok4z9Xpapzc[/youtube]

Dani AI

Generated

As reported, the thread highlights interest in very low-cost hardware for education. The most useful follow-up for readers years later is practical deployment advice: headline unit cost attracts attention, but long-term learning value depends on support, maintainability, content, and total cost of ownership.

A concise evaluation checklist:

  • Confirm long-term software support and a clear update/patching policy.
  • Verify the ability to provision and reimage devices locally (documented tooling and permissions).
  • Plan content delivery for low-connectivity environments (preloaded curriculum, local caching or classroom servers).
  • Require documented repairability and a local spare-parts supply or service partner.
  • Include teacher training and ongoing pedagogical support in procurement budgets.
  • Define warranty terms, service-level agreements, and replace-or-repair timelines.
  • Audit privacy, data ownership, and account-management capabilities.
  • Ensure multilingual and accessibility support for the target student population.

A recommended pilot workflow:

  1. Run a small pilot (one or two schools) with clearly defined success metrics: lesson coverage, device availability, teacher confidence, and basic technical reliability.
  2. Collect quantitative and qualitative data for a fixed period (weeks to a few months), refine device images and support procedures based on feedback.
  3. Build a simple maintenance plan: a central image repository, a small spare-parts kit, and local technician training.
  4. Scale only after procurement guarantees parts/support and the pilot shows measurable instructional benefit.

Bottom line: low-cost hardware can deliver real classroom gains, but only when procurement covers updates, teacher support, repairability, and content distribution. Evaluations that focus beyond the sticker price produce sustainable programs rather than short-lived pilots.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.

Edit Preview