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Hands On: India’s $35 Aakash Android tablet lands in America

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Re: Hands On: India’s $35 Aakash Android tablet lands in America

#11

Post by solutionyogi »

microarchitect wrote: post #8
knodi wrote: post #5

Thats 1732.5 INR. Thats pretty good. Lower middle-class should have not problem affording this. As it costs less then a family night out in India.

This is nitpicking, but no middle-class family can afford to spend 2k on a night out in India. Hell, I was earning a boatload (relatively of course) of money, and I wasn't comfortable spending more than 1k or so on a night out.

Completely agree. Right now I am in US and earn in dollars and support my family back home, even then my dad would never spend 1700 rupees on a night out. Also, if someone can afford to spend that kind of money for a night out, I am very sure they can afford a higher quality tablet.

I think this is for someone like the maid who works at our home and makes around 3000 rupees a month. She can save money and buy this for her kid so that they are better educated.

Re: Hands On: India’s $35 Aakash Android tablet lands in America

#14

Post by Cherian_Abraham »

Imagine what this would do to the PC sales in India? PC Sales were at 4.68 million in 2010 and it was expected to go up 22% in 2011. A significant chunk of those potential customers will opt for a far cheaper and mobile Aakash now. Ofcourse, there will still be some who will opt for a PC (as Aakash does not put a significant dent in their wallets), but the Tablet does it for a lot of people, with out having to worry about support, viruses etc.

Re: Hands On: India’s $35 Aakash Android tablet lands in America

#15

Post by sharkman »

solutionyogi wrote: post #11
microarchitect wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is nitpicking, but no middle-class family can afford to spend 2k on a night out in India. Hell, I was earning a boatload (relatively of course) of money, and I wasn't comfortable spending more than 1k or so on a night out.

Completely agree. Right now I am in US and earn in dollars and support my family back home, even then my dad would never spend 1700 rupees on a night out. Also, if someone can afford to spend that kind of money for a night out, I am very sure they can afford a higher quality tablet. I think this is for someone like the maid who works at our home and makes around 3000 rupees a month. She can save money and buy this fo…

Wait.. you're saying by working in US, you can support yourself here AND support your family back home including hiring a maid!? I wish I could work there with a global pay salary...

Re: Hands On: India’s $35 Aakash Android tablet lands in America

#17

Post by retrofit_brain »

vijayr wrote: post #10
knodi wrote: post #5

Thats 1732.5 INR. Thats pretty good. Lower middle-class should have not problem affording this. As it costs less then a family night out in India.

wait!! you are saying a family night out in India would cost more than 1700 INR? Unless you are going to a five star restaurant, I am pretty sure this is not the case. This would be awesome if they don't allow the cost to increase, down the road.

2 years back i spent 2K on a group of 4, movies and dinner. It is getting expensive. Growing up, i never spent more than 100 rupees on dinner for one.

Re: Hands On: India’s $35 Aakash Android tablet lands in America

#18

Post by jk-in »

nobody3141 wrote: post #2

It's $60 retail, there are $75 retail Chinese Android 2.3 tablets - they didn't change the world, why would this one? Is the government going to create online courses in English and Hindi? Is it going to have English lessons so you can access all those 'educational' Youtube videos? Is it going to record the best elementary school teachers and put their lessons online? Or is it going to be another - "we put computers…

Students will get this device for $35.

It is not just about courses in youtube. Quite a few courses are already available in the educational network in India. At present, only a small section of the students have access to these; that too, only at school. The main objective of the government is to provide means to access these courses.

Re: Hands On: India’s $35 Aakash Android tablet lands in America

#20

Post by adimitrov »

nobody3141 wrote: post #4
folkster wrote: post #3

I wonder whether they can produce them for $35 in a massive scale or the cost keep inflating like the OLPC

The parts are pretty standard and the government can potentially buy them by million plus they can easily line up cheap manufacturing. The OLPC was a unique and novel design with no real momentum behind it. The main barrier to the success of this device is that since it's a government project at least 50% of the budget will be siphoned off into pork barrelling, ministerial pet projects and 'consultancy fees' to close…

India has a big problem with rampant political corruption.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_India

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