The Mobilis, Encore's inexpensive mobile PC
A Bangalore-based company is the latest to get in on the recent trend of cheap computers, following Nicholas Negroponte's $100 PC, VIA's $250 PC, and AMD's cheap Personal Internet Communicator. Encore Software, with the backing of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, has developed three different PCs ranging in price from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 20,000 (between $230 and $460US). The basic model is the Softcom, a desktop with a 15-inch monitor, moving up a bit is the Mobilis, a Linux-based mobile desktop with a 7.4-inch LCD screen, and at the top of the heap is the Mobilis Wireless, which adds a built-in GPS receiver and GPRS wireless modem. None of the systems apparently come with a hard drive, with storage instead being handled through memory cards. Despite that, the company says they'll be able to handle regular applications like word processing, spreadsheets, personal information managers, e-mail and web-browsers, and even play movies and music. They'll also have text-to-speech conversion and built-in local-language support. Look for them to hit the market in about three months.
[Via Slashdot]
