“A Russian state company plans to start mass production next year of cheap plastic-based tablet computers for school students which it says will rival Apple Inc’s iPad,” Gleb Bryanski reports for Reuters.
“Anatoly Chubais, an architect of Russian market reform and a head of technology conglomerate Rosnano, told Prime Minister Vladimir Putin the new computer would cost about $420 compared with $670 for the cheapest iPad,” Bryanski reports.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s iPad starts at US$499.
“‘This tablet is lighter, there is no glass, even in the screen. Even if school students decide to fight each other with these tablets, they are absolutely injury-free,’ Chubais joked in an bid to promote the technology,” Bryanski reports. “The device would use plastic or organic electronics, developed at Cambridge University in the 1990s, rather than silicon conductors. Chubais sees the technology grabbing a 10 percent share of the global electronics market.”
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Bryanski reports, “Chubais said Rosnano will test the new tablet, pre-loaded with school books and education materials, in some schools for a year before launching mass production and targeting Russia’s 13.6 million school students.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Близо́к локото́к, да не уку́сишь. Бодли́вой коро́ве Бог рог не даёт. Ску́пой пла́тит два́жды.
Google translation of the MDN take:
“Close elbow, but not bite. Bodlivoy cow horn God does not. Miser pays twice.”
Better translation: Even thought the elbow is close, you still can’t bite it. God doesn’t give horns to a cow that butts. The miserly pays twice.
In English, the first one is probably like “Close but no cigar” and the last one is “Penny-wise and pound-foolish.
TY! Very adroit!
I like the Google translation better. I vote for “Bodlivoy Cow Horn” as the name of the device.
+1
++
“Dudeski, you get now a Rosnano!”
“OK… what?”
Nope. It says “bloodbath”.
And I will have a brand new version of flying environmentally save bio jet fueled underwear on the market costing only $0.99… by that time.
Trust me… or else!
i wish you guys good luck. Hope you dont end up like the other competitors of the iPad. “Toast”
But then again, you are targeting students and not the general public so you might succeed.
But the Russians love a good toast! На здорове!!
Widget translation just as intelligible:
Blizók of lokotók, yes not you ukúsish. To bodlívoy koróve god horn does not give. Skúpoy it plátit dvázhdy.
MacDailyNews Take English translation:
“It only seems to be easy. Overzealous people often don’t have means to do what they would like to. If you buy cheaply, you pay dearly; the stingy one pays twice.”
1
The last line is best:
‘The Stingy one pays twice’
Thats all about money. Nobody believes that state-controlled company would produce a tablet worth to buy. Its a government money which will flow into corrupted pockets. They’ve already released an “iPhone killer” : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O_DJM8VHxc and it never hit the shelves. But some people have made a fortune on it.
Yes. Now it makes sense. Unfortunately, what Russians seem to have learned from their very long period of despotic rule is how to all be gangsters working the system.
Perfect. This guy and the guy who runs the Turkish school system should meet. They can set up a factory in Turkey selling Russian iPads to the Turks who can then smash their own heads in when it doesn’t work.
The problem is, even at $400, this is way too pricey for an average Russian family, they will force parents to buy this useless stuff, then it will get stolen from them, it’s the reality in Russia.
Love the headline… How do call a vertical market tablet only to be sold or supplied to Russian school children an iPad killer…makes a good headline… But no sense!
As an old movie tag line said…
Deeds not Words…
A plastic LCD screen would be intresting to see.
In mother Russia, the i Pads you!
So, students can fight with these tablets and not get hurt…
They cant be “cutting edge” technology then!
I wonder how scratch resistant a plastic face would be on their tablet. It’s a good idea, time will tell how good though.
Wrong move for Russia. Instead of designing cheap and poor quality copies of ipad, they should focus on developing apps for ipad directly.
Also, there is a big and growing Mac community in Russia:
http://www.cultofmac.com/russian-president-medvedev-a-mac-user/4482
http://www.cultofmac.com/russian-president-dimitry-medvedev-has-an-ipad/40756
“The device would use plastic or organic…”
An Etch-A-Sketch?
LIKE
😀
Nope. Retch-a-Sketch.
Yeah, organic, organic what? There is no such alternative to silicon as of yet. Vaporware, albeit Russian vaporware.
So, you get a Russian made tablet made of inferior materials for basically the same price as an iPad.
Sounds like a real iPad killer…
Nyet. If look like Lada, run like Lada, then must be Lada. We buy Mercedes and BWM now. Maybe peddle Lada tablet to aspiring socialists in DC.?
Ah yes, we buy the superior Mercedes and BMW, designed by superior engineers in a country with health care and education through the university level provided by the government — meaning, of course, taxpayers. Sounds like “socialism” is a terrific idea.
Spot the deliberate error?
Sales price $420. Should have read $42.00.
How do you say “delusional” in Russian?
What a waste of good plastic…
I love how one of the features is that if students decide to fight with it, they won’t be injured. As if getting smacked in the head with a plastic slab wouldn’t hurt.
I guess if my kids misbehave, I’ll. Just send them to Russian schools rather than military school?
Russia designs cheap plastic-based ‘iPad killer’
And the surprise would be???????
This is just plain stupid. Russia is flush with money, unlike U. S. of A. They can easily afford paying Apple 7-8 million dollars to equip their pupils with the best tablet there is. Russian kids already are getting better education than US schoolchildren. Why help US catch up with crappy domestic iPad copies?!
Lobbyists screw us all, no matter where we live.
What OS on the Russkie tablets?
I can’t wait to see these parade through Red Square on May Day.
I can see it now:
“Russia boasts about 50 megaton iPad killer – Americans cower in terror”
WASHINGTON DC – August 19, 1962 – “Sources inside the Pentagon today expressed alarm about a growing ‘iPad gap’ and asked Congress for more funds to build hardened shelters to withstand the threat of a surprise attack of an onslaught of incoming Russian pad devices.
“We make the world’s largest hydroelectric plants, the largest strategic bombers, the largest nuclear attack submarines, and now, the world’s largest iPad killers,” boasted Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Pounding his shoe on his office table in the Kremlin, he shouted, “There is nothing you can do to stop us!! You’re doomed!! Doomed, I say!! Apple, we will bury you!”
A panel of experts led by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been convened to assess the growing Russian threat. A final report of their findings is expected in 2027.
“Miser pays twice”
Is that like buying Windows Home Edition and then having to buy Windows again when you find out Home Edition doesn’t do what you need?
Yep. It’s like buying a cheaper PC over a Mac every 1.5-2 years to save money. And then buying all kinds of anti-virus software. In the long run all the efforts to save have cost you more money, not to mention the invaluable time you spent on setting up and trouble shooting each new computer.
You do know the iPad was invented in Russian. 😉
Russia designing a one-fits-all iPad killer is what you get in a Socialist country where someone makes a single decision for the whole country, regardless of whether it is right or possible or not.
iPads exist because of the OS & Apps & Integration. Low price doesn’t trump that; witness the latest from HP.
Russia will fail again.
Get over your Cold War paranoia. Russia isn’t Socialist any more – it is an oligarchy. Socialism, Soviet style, is dead. If you’ve watched the news videos of Putin in the Kremlin, it is obvious he is running the country like an old style Czar.
It is still the government running things, but it isn’t socialist – it is more honest now that they don’t put a veneer of “populism” over it. It is now simply the rich running the show for the benefit of the rich.
Kind of like the Republican idea of how they want this country to run!
“Russia isn’t Socialist any more – it is an oligarchy…. Kind of like the Republican idea of how they want this country to run!”
Too late. The US Corporate Oligarchy already mandates the behavior of BOTH the DemoCrap and RepubliTard parties. The only difference that the Russian Oligarchy is smarter and more blatant.
As Cagney said in One, Two, Three, it looks like a ’39 Nash.
Hey russkies,
If you drink enough vodka, it will really, really start to look like an iPad, yeah…….:-)
Actually, this is the Russian company that purchased the technology behind PLASTICLOGICS Q Tablet…
It is a very expensive but promising technology… using plastic as a foundation for semiconductors instead of silicon… it allows for a very thin and light weight plastic display that is virtually unbreakable.
This may be the future…
…or not.
The iVan-pad?
“Chubais said Rosnano will test the new tablet, pre-loaded with school books and education materials, in some schools for a year before launching mass production and targeting Russia’s 13.6 million school students.”
I see NOTHING ‘iPad Killer’ in the description. At best this sounds like expensive Kindle or Nook knockoff.
Questions:
– What OS is the ‘Killer’ running?
– How does a developer create apps for it?
– Are the apps vetted before distribution?
– Does it have ANY security?
– How much graft do you have to pay to get your app approved?
– Does the battery charging station use a hand crank?
Suspected Defective Features List:
– ‘No glass’ screen = EZ-Scratch plastic screen. Have pity on the kids who get these things secondhand.
– Slowest CPU and OS in the east, eastern Europe that is.
– Overheating circuit problems causing inadvertent shutdowns.
– No multitasking.
– Low battery life.
– Melting and burning batteries.
– Plays Flash at 4 frames a second.
– The Russian Mafia gets a 25% cut. (Yeah, I’m naive. More like a 50% cut).
– Meagre networking capability.
– Plastic has an odd odor and gives kids a rash.
– 5% or more dead pixels.
– Low screen brightness and pixel density causes rapid eye fatigue and myopia.
– No camera.
– Home button falls off.
– Clunky touch sensitivity.
– GUI directly ripped off from Apple.
– Banned from landfill disposal because of carcinogens.
– Releases cyanide gas when burned.
– Pregnant women warned not to touch it due to induced fetal miscarriages.
If you’d like to play along, please add your own defective features to the list! 😯
Operative word ….. Cheap!