Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

venturebeat.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 56 posts

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

#31

Post by juxta »

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.

Now we stayed about decent hotels time to time on our travels and the cost varied as well. We stayed at a decent hotel (probably 2-3star - not even) in mumbai and that cost us 2000INR a night; in goa we paid about 1200INR a night for even a crappier room but it had AC. But on average a hotel room cost about 1000INR/night. If we stayed at a high-end we would pay 5000+INR a night.

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

#32

Post by 0x12 »

msinghai wrote: post #21

Not to discourage you guys, but, this tablet is horrible. I am a class X Indian student, just got this for 2300 from the government outlet at Delhi. Its too slow. The battery only lasts an hour or so even if it's plugged in for 5 hours. YouTube, is also way too bad. Wifi connectivity is messed up. To switch to a new network, you have to restart the device. It feels a bit cheap on the outside too and neither my USB Ke…

So, 3 years ago you'd have called it revolutionary.

Technology moves so fast these days that if you don't place the bar for your product sufficiently high you won't be able to get happy customers even if you give it away.

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

#33

Post by 0x12 »

irahul wrote: post #25
sharkman wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

> Wait.. you're saying by working in US, you can support yourself here AND support your family back home Considering that 1 USD is 49.5 INR, why does this come as a surprise to you? For context, 1000 USD will be around 49000 INR at current conversion(it will be less but for argument's sake) which is more than what a software engineer with 3 years of experience makes in a month. > including hiring a maid!? I pay my ma…

You either have a maid or you are a maid. Even some of the maids have maids, go figure.

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

#34

Post by ww520 »

0x12 wrote: post #32
msinghai wrote: post #21

Not to discourage you guys, but, this tablet is horrible. I am a class X Indian student, just got this for 2300 from the government outlet at Delhi. Its too slow. The battery only lasts an hour or so even if it's plugged in for 5 hours. YouTube, is also way too bad. Wifi connectivity is messed up. To switch to a new network, you have to restart the device. It feels a bit cheap on the outside too and neither my USB Ke…

So, 3 years ago you'd have called it revolutionary. Technology moves so fast these days that if you don't place the bar for your product sufficiently high you won't be able to get happy customers even if you give it away.

But it won't be $35 3 years ago.

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

#35

Post by ctdonath »

irahul wrote: post #25
sharkman wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

> Wait.. you're saying by working in US, you can support yourself here AND support your family back home Considering that 1 USD is 49.5 INR, why does this come as a surprise to you? For context, 1000 USD will be around 49000 INR at current conversion(it will be less but for argument's sake) which is more than what a software engineer with 3 years of experience makes in a month. > including hiring a maid!? I pay my ma…

Ah, the benefits of not making low-pay jobs illegal: the maid _has_ a job, and a middle-class family can afford to hire her for what the work is worth to them.

This in contrast to the USA, where it is illegal to pay her what the work is worth (thanks to "minimum wage" laws), so she doesn't have a job and must be given some form of welfare, which the middle-class family which wants to hire her ends up paying without the benefit of a clean house in return.

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

#36

Post by irahul »

ctdonath wrote: post #35
irahul wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wait.. you're saying by working in US, you can support yourself here AND support your family back home Considering that 1 USD is 49.5 INR, why does this come as a surprise to you? For context, 1000 USD will be around 49000 INR at current conversion(it will be less but for argument's sake) which is more than what a software engineer with 3 years of experience makes in a month. > including hiring a maid!? I pay my ma…

Ah, the benefits of not making low-pay jobs illegal: the maid _has_ a job, and a middle-class family can afford to hire her for what the work is worth to them. This in contrast to the USA, where it is illegal to pay her what the work is worth (thanks to "minimum wage" laws), so she doesn't have a job and must be given some form of welfare, which the middle-class family which wants to hire her ends up paying without t…

My maid does the job because the job is pretty light weight and takes about half an hour on an average day. This setup enables her to work at other places.

Maids aren't paid highly here because there is no welfare, the general income is quite low, and my maid can either make those 800 bucks working for me, or has to find another job. Depending on the situation, it might or might not be working well for her.

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

#37

Post by anmol »

it could be revolutionary if it helps create a slew on android education/entertainment apps meant for low CPU / low network tablets.

note the official poverty line in India is about $1/day and 30% of the population is below it. These people are not worried about YouTube videos.

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

#38

Post by mkr-hn »

anmol wrote: post #37

it could be revolutionary if it helps create a slew on android education/entertainment apps meant for low CPU / low network tablets. note the official poverty line in India is about $1/day and 30% of the population is below it. These people are not worried about YouTube videos.

This could change your life if you can't get to a library and you can't afford a normal computer. Just being able to look up how to fix a car could restore mobility to someone who couldn't afford labor, or afford a tow to a mechanic.

That's one tiny example in a sea of little conveniences a computer affords us that we don't usually think about. And I'm not even talking about India. There are people in this situation in the US.

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

#39

Post by mkr-hn »

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

OLPC beat the mass popularization of mobile by a few years. The had to start with a non-stock (and more expensive) device because there weren't many parts that did what they wanted to do.

This tablet is probably what OLPC would look like if it started today.

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

#40

Post by kloc »

msinghai wrote: post #21

Not to discourage you guys, but, this tablet is horrible. I am a class X Indian student, just got this for 2300 from the government outlet at Delhi. Its too slow. The battery only lasts an hour or so even if it's plugged in for 5 hours. YouTube, is also way too bad. Wifi connectivity is messed up. To switch to a new network, you have to restart the device. It feels a bit cheap on the outside too and neither my USB Ke…

This device is not meant for someone like you to even evaluate. It is not meant to be used by people who hang out on hacker news or for people who grew up in Delhi and who travel in a/c Delhi metro. It is for poor kids in UP/Bihar who will never have any access to such technology otherwise. You have to see the bigger picture here.
Post reply on HN