India launches its first low-cost desktop

The Indian low-cost PC movement has already seen some pretty cheap entrants in the handheld department, and now for the first time the desktop computer has fallen below 10,000 rupees (just under $225). The system was launched yesterday, and has been designed by HCL Infosystems to include all the basic features a first-time PC user would need, as well as allowing room for future upgradeability. The machine is a 1 GHz system with 128MB RAM, a 40GB hard drive and a 15-inch color monitor. It's hoped that the availability of cheap PCs will help increase the number of India's computer users by a wide margin, and drive demand for internet connectivity across the country, as well.

[Yet another matt @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

"15-inch COLOR monitor"

better than those old fangled monochrome ones i guess

[narco @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

i don't think I'll ever get over the fact that their currency is named after a NES game. I do believe Gannon needs to blast that fool on the right.

Fishes,
narco.

[semi @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

seeing as many indians are raking in millions in silicon valley....its about time other indians got a piece of the action

[Malfoy Roark @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Re: 2

Yes, thats right the currency is named after the NES game. Before the game came out the currency had a totally different name. =p And a good chunk of porn comes out of india. It's hard to fathom that the large amount indain porn produced is produced by a small %.

[a @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

if it wasn't for keeping up with my jones
all PCs (not game machines) would be $100
who needs more than a 486 to check email and the web and word proc.

[Hitesh Sawlani @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Actually Narco the currency is not named after a NES game,

Rupee comes from the word Ruypa in sanskrit (ancient language) meaning SILVER.

This happened more than a hundred years ago, long before any NES game was invented or planned.

Have you ever thought the game in NES copied the real indian currency? Isn't that much more logical?

[tino @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Blad! It's not cheaper than WalMart.

[t0dd @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Any word on the makers of the components intel chipset? maxtor hard drive? Just curious.

[Malfoy Roark @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

After a brief search. I can't anyone that sales a new computer for less than 225. But the best deal I found was a dell dimension 2400 at $299 after 75 buck rebate. 2.4 ghz cellery, XP Home, 256 mb of ram, 80gb hd. 17 in, 16 viewable CRT, 48X cd rom drive, some speakers, and corel word perfect. Dell could easily remove some of these things. (XP Home? reduce processor speed?) to reduce the price and take India to town using its own citizens. =O

[Mike @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

UH, whats so hard about what thier doing?? Anyone can make a cheap computer! All you have to do is put together a PC that is as fast as computers 3 years ago... and thats exactly what they did.

Lets forget about NES right now guy's. Anyone know what Operating System they are using? If they go open source it would bring down the price ALOT.

[Malfoy Roark @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Uh Mike, they arent using Windows and we know it's not using OSX. I don't think they are bold enough to try to force Solaris on an unsuspecting public so... what could they possibly be spending money on that switching to open source would bring down the price ALOT.

[webdoctor @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

This announcement by HCL is just a sales gimmick. In India the major desktop market share is controlled by number of small businesses who assemble the PC's using individual components imported from the Far East. You can get a Pentium 4 3 ghz machine with a 80gb Seagate hard drive and 512mb Kingston RAM for $450. Try beating that DELL!!!

The low end machines can be assembled for around $200.

[jedda @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Just doing a quick price check on parts I was able to build a 1ghz celeron pc with 40GB hard drive and 128MB RAM with 17inch monitor and mouse and keyboard for $180

[alc277 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

It's Windows XP with the silver color scheme in the picture. The bar is silver, and if you analyze the image you will detect the green of the start button that makes up a couple the bottom left corner pixels on the computer monitor.

[hobgoblin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

analyze the pic my foot. if you blow it up so that you can count the individial pixels in that corner anything can happen given the size of the image.

it can allso be kde og gnome in default color settings. hell, it may even be linspire. they have a very xp silver kinda theme going on that distro...

and to #1 about the size of the screen. 15" works quite well, im still using one.

[jedda @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

#13 Is there a larger image of this somewhere because I dont see any way that your seeing windows xp on that screen.

Also I wonder what Dell could manufacture and sell a system with these specs for?

[Krishna @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

And to answer one of the commenter's question, the HCL system uses Linux, not Windows XP.

[Krishna @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

For a better(?) picture and more info http://www.hindu.com/2005/08/02/stories/2005080204541700.htm

[hobgoblin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

hmm, better im not sure as its black and white. but there is a big circle to the right of the bar that reminds me of the warning icon for updates on fedora...

[Renie Ravin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

The HCL system uses Red Hat.

[venkat @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

#2 blow the guy on left lol. He is Indias Information and Broadcasting minister and brother of a media barron who is trying to rule the media planet in India with full monoploy, i love to see him featured in NES game and blown into pieces :)

~v

[venkat @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Sorry its the guy on the right..

~v