“A ‘$35’ computer launched last year in India as the world’s cheapest tablet has run into problems and companies will be invited to bid again to make the device after complaints of poor performance and hiccups rolling out a pilot model,” Frank Jack Daniel reports for Reuters.
“Products such as Apple Inc’s iPad are beyond the reach even of many in the fast-growing middle class. The locally assembled machine has a cost price of around $50 and was to be sold to students by the government for $35,” The Man With Three First Names reports. “But only 10,000 units have been shipped since October. The relationship between the device’s manufacturer, DataWind, and a government research institute soured amid complaints by test users that the processor was too slow, the battery life short and the resistive touch screen hard to use.”
TMWTFN reports, “A small London-based company, DataWind developed the tablet with the Indian Institute of Technology. The company said the institute had changed the specifications late last year and now wanted a device that could meet U.S. military durability requirement for the same rock-bottom price. ‘Among other things that requires the device to take 4 inches an hour of sustained rain,’ DataWind CEO Suneet Singh told Reuters.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The entire world has gone batshit insane.
We await The New York Slimes‘ exposé on the plight of the factory workers’ at the $35 Indian tablet assembly line with bated breath.
$35… Come on … If it worked 2 weeks you got what you paid for …. The news I read here never ceases to amaze and baffle me in its flat out idiocy
And they make impressive fuTuRiSTiC paving stones. The Jones will be green with envy.
Hahaha wow… Just buy a Kindle Fire if you have to… Jeezuz.
Correction: Buddha….
Jeezuz will work fine – just ask Willard Romney.
+10
the whole idea was to make a $35 tablet..
the Fire would be a better choice for sure. but a little higher than the $35 budget.
I wonder what those poor workers make a day. I guess it will be less than $35.
When I was in India, I learned an amazing fact. While many Indians do make a couple of bucks a day, it is possible to live on $2 a day there. We cannot compare our cost of living to theirs. We think, “Those poor Indians only make $2 a day.” They think, “Those stupid American spend $2 on a 2¢ cup of coffee!”
Indeed. It’s Squalor versus Squander.
Oooo…+1
Meanwhile the GOP class of Presidential aspirations keeps the nation squarely focused on controlling women’s lady parts, Only realizing today that government forced rape might not be such a bright idea.
“processor was too slow, the battery life short and the resistive touch screen hard to use”
What else is there to a tablet? There needs to be a “but, at least…” I guess, it’s, “but, at least it’s cheap.”
But at least it blends.
The part that gets me is the Institute “…now wanted a device that could meet U.S. military durability requirement for the same rock-bottom price.” Hmm… maybe they should realize that the only way to reach that price was to make compromises.
“…The Man With Three First Names reports.”
HAHAHAHAHA!!! That made me read the sentence a few times. 😉
Hmmmm, a MilSpec hardened tablet for thirty five bucks – I’ll have me one of those, thanks.
MDN Take — Absolutely spot on!
U.S. military durability requirements? U.S. military prices.
exactly right.
I’m more amazed at the 4 inches of rain an hour for 4 hours requirement.
Sounds like they don’t know their Aakash from a hole in the ground.