$10 Indian laptop to actually cost $100, anyone surprised?
By Nilay Patel 
posted Jul 30th 2008 5:10PM
posted Jul 30th 2008 5:10PM
Come on, you didn't really believe that a $10 laptop was even remotely possible, did you? Yeah, didn't think so -- and unsurprisingly, that project sponsored by the Indian government to develop a low-cost laptop actually has a price target of $100, not $10. Chalk another one up to bad transcription, we suppose, although getting the price of a reasonable machine down to $100 won't be all that easy, either -- any bets on where the final price of this thing ends up?
We need an article on why it takes 5 presses of F5 to see your comment or reply. :( Please fix comment system.
I think you're off by a factor of ten as well.
It takes .5 presses. I mean, 50.
You're lucky.
Mine takes 9 CTRL+R's.
Are you that excited to see your stupid comments that you can't wait 60 seconds for it to show up?
...it takes 60 seconds?
I believed it. Cause you told me so engadget. Now im just confused.
nahh... it was a typo... right? ;-)
actually I did believe it too -- the laptop would basically be a 1-800 number dialing device that connects to "Dave" in India and he would order him to do whatever is on your mind then. Want to create a document - Dave is ready to take a dictation ... you get the idea. I was only worried about how to access p0rn though .....
@TomTom2007
engadget make a typo? Nevah!!
@Krush
Good point. We wouldnt want "Dave" to re-enact anything for us.
I blame inflation.
$100 American probably does spend like $10 in India.
keeping in mind the per capita income in India is $2700, I would hazard to say you're completely full of shit.
Or completely kidding. LMAO Turn the sarcasm detector up a little.
rock99rock, you're an idiot.
@ John
I will assume that you simply misunderstood BigD145's comment. It was a little ambiguous, I'll give you that.
He meant to say spending $100 in America is liken to spending $10 in India. Not that $100 would amount to a $10 purchase in India.
Those numbers work out though. Average American income ~ $30,000, average Indian income ~ 3k. Power of ten difference in real purchasing power of equal amounts of currency.
My bad rock99rock, you're cool.
I meant Fred. Fred is an idiot.
I bet I know what the repair costs on a $100 laptop are.
$100.00.
If anyone could make $100 laptops, China could?
So why don't they?
Well you see, technically, you have to factor in parts and labour co....
Don't make me be that guy!
Anybody who thought this $10 laptop was for real, raise your hand.
Ready?
If your hand is up, you're an idiot.
Sorry, Paul.
Oh my god...While I started scratching my armpit with my arm raised I started reading your post...honest to god.
Not there yet but in my neighbourhood, there is a shop selling used P3 1000mhz Win2k at 35$ witch I use without any lag on a daily basis at home. This computer is wayyyyy faster than any eee pc.
@aemond
1) Not XP.
2) Not extremely tiny.
3) Not quite a $10 laptop.
@Pochi: Like in your first post, we all want:
- Computer running good OS
- Very portable
- Cheap
- Not slow
- Buyable
- Screen bigger than 7in
Note that:
Current Netbook can't offer that (600$ isn't cheap or you get cheap battery or smaller screen)
I was just pointing that really cheap fast computer running good OS are easily buyable.
And personally, i don't care if the OS is Win 2000, XP, Vista, OSX, Linux or even Windows Mobile, I can do all my stuff on all of those. For me, the race is currently on the hardware.
I can't wait to get Crysis on this thing!
Uh?
well it makes sense that's what his momma said when he came out
I will run Crysis at 1/10th of a frame ever 3 years.
I wager a mere 12408.8 (rupees) will be slapped on the side of that puppy (not including postage and handling)
This smells like Eee all over again.
more like OLPC
Five Hundred and Ninety Nine US Dollars.
No, I'm not surprised, and I can't believe I had at least three different sites shoving it down my RSS reader.
I actually thought it would be $5 given India's reputation for cost cutting. Oh well...
really? engadget? didnt they say it was coming in a couple of years.
right now you can buy a meal for $10. heck, a freaking USB cable cost $30
$200 if it ends up just like OneLaptopPerChild (OLPC) program, but they promised they'll make it cheaper...eventually.
My bet it $160 per "something like a laptop" :)
And where's my edit button?
Correct way to read it:
My bet is...
When is it coming out? I expect $100 netbooks to be a reality by 2010. Maybe even Christmas 2009. Would you really be that surprised? We're getting pretty close.
I still dont get this... in the article that you linked it said that
They were developing a $100 laptop. wtf.
600 quatloos on the newcomer!
"Come on, you didn't really believe that a $10 laptop was even remotely possible, did you? Yeah, didn't think so"
Well, you guys weren't entirely sure it wasn't possible either:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/29/india-developing-10-laptop-gartner-says-100-laptop-at-least/
This reminds me of many months ago when Nilay claimed XP SP3 would have a 10% performance boost one day, then claimed it wouldn't have any performance boost a couple days later, and then lied about it when someone pointed it out. Good times, good times!
You're right, my diabolical conspiracy is so sophisticated that it involves directly linking the previous post.
@ Nilay Patel
Your XP SP3 article linked to the original post too.
Also funny to note that your response is sarcastic and ad hominem and thus conveniently doesn't address my claim.
i think that this will targeted at 100 dollars, then to the 200 dollar laptop, and then to the 349.95 laptop, and then follow those footsteps just like asus, and then whore out the laptop name like eee did.
That was what it was going to cost them, you fool.
The Eee was going to be the $200 laptop when it was first announced, by the time I bought for mine it was $400. So this will cost $200?
Minimum!
Even if it's 100$ (in India), 100$ transport will get you to 200$.
So the laptop from India that was going to save us loads of money winds up costing a lot more than we thought in the end. Mind you, there are absolutely no parallels to the engineering world that managers should learn, no sir.
Can't say i'm not suprised
a laptop for 20 quid
was never going to happen really was it?
so you _were_ surprised. zuh?
I think it'll definitely come up to around $200 but that's still not bad for what the target audience will use this for.
Oh man, I had already saved up $3 towards one of these.
I cant wait to test these in 'extreme' conditions... you know, throwin it down a river . Running it over with a truck and all stuff. Especially Vista ultimate *Evil me*
This is a total miscommunication. The state government of Tamilnadu, India launched a Student Laptop Scheme for Rs.20,000 Roughly $50 at todays conversion rate. They had to negotiate with Lenova, Gateway and Dell to offer this proce with a configuration of 2.0GHz Dual Core, 2GB Ram, 256 MB GPU, 160GB Hard Drive, Wireless G, Dual Layer DVD RW Drive. A month after the announcement they couldnt get to $50, but they were able to get the same configuration for about $80 or Rs.31,000. There is no mention on who manufactures and supplies the laptop at the end. Please note, this is only available for students studying in India.
urlingo - Rs. 31000 is not equal to $80. It is $800