Forget the OLPC XO: India working on $10 laptop

While Nick Negroponte and the crew over at OLPC struggle to offer the XO for its original target of $100 (it now costs around $175, before factoring in support costs), India's Ministry of Human Resource Development is planning to completely leapfrog three-digit price tags with a machine that is already spec'ed at $47 and may cost only ten bucks when manufactured in bulk. With two potential designs having already been submitted by a researcher and engineering student (neither of which is pictured above) and a critical meeting scheduled for later this month, the "TDL" project seems to be well underway, and officials hope to have a product out the door within two years. India's plans for uber-cheap hardware come almost a year after the country rejected the XO as "pedagogically suspect," and several months after yet another competitor in this space -- Intel's Classmate -- was loosed on Brazil. And so the race to charge absolutely nothing for computers continues unabated, foretelling a day in the not-too-distant future when we'll be churning through PCs like daily-wear contacts.

[Via Slashdot]

[kingofwale @ May 4th 2007 12:15PM]

LMAO, nice picture

[joe @ May 4th 2007 12:25PM]

I want what is pictured above...

[Owl @ May 4th 2007 12:29PM]

They will also have the added advantage of being able to understand the tech when they call for support.

[Joe Remy @ May 4th 2007 12:31PM]

Thats the Steampunk Laptop. Its an actual working computer. It comes complete with morse-code trackball.

http://ironwork.jp/monkey_farm/computer/pc2.html

[Mike @ May 4th 2007 1:23PM]

Here is the prototype:

http://zoom.jcpenney.com//is/image/0900631b81022773M.TIF?wid=250&hei=250&op_sharpen=1

Seriously though: with enough government subsidies you could make a free laptop. A $10 doesn't mean it will cost that much to produce. OLPC covers its costs with the price of the laptop.

[Mikey @ May 4th 2007 2:40PM]

roflao

[jowee @ May 4th 2007 2:29PM]

@ henry.....One of the best comments I think I've ever read

[huygir @ May 4th 2007 3:04PM]

$47 in 2 years compared to $175 "today"... isn't that simply the process of economics? I expect the $147 laptop to be $47 in 2 years and an new $150 version to be in it's place with last-gen tech. What's the big deal?

[Scooter @ May 4th 2007 6:15PM]

what's with the knocking attitude?

Finally, the third world is gonna whup yr assets and do it for themselves. No way does India, land of smarts, need an MIT 'solution'. It is about time that India, or China, or Brazil, developed its own technologies.

OLPC is so focused on a purely arbitrary price ($100 per unit, which it apparently can't meet) that it is overlooking the fact that the process of developing - and building and maintaining - a revolutionary IT product would be the biggest boost for these economies. Outsource the OLPC!

There has also been too much focus on the product itslef. The process is equally important, although the biggest issue is the end result. With laptops being pulled from US classrooms, the whole concept of handing laptops to every child is questionable. I have yet to see a convincing argument that simply because a laptop is available kids will somehow become smarter and their country will develop faster.

[Juaquin @ May 4th 2007 8:11PM]

I can build a laptop with a 17" screen, 3.2Ghz processor, and 13 hours of battery life for $0.42. Seriously.

And it will play Doom.

[Feba @ May 6th 2007 5:05AM]

A maintenence network? Who the hell is going to spend money on repairs for a 10$ laptop? That would be like taking a 30$ TV into a shop...

[Andrew Hope @ May 7th 2007 4:29PM]

That has got to be the biggest pile of shite i have ever seen in my life. Like come on what bin did the designer get the parts from?