compare the prices to your local currency here
the commercial price for the tablet in local currency is 2550 Indian roepies (about 40 Euro)
but some Indian educational authorities are sponsering the sale of it to their students for 50% making it (about 20 Euro)
there are already 1.4 million orders for the tablet made by a british firm datawind with the full help of OLPC (the cheap laptop for every kid project that now in fact needs to change into a cheap tablet for every kid)
it has an 7 inch screen and runs on the old android 2.2 (the android 4 can be compared to the ipad) and works only with 2G (3g is too expensive anyway) and has only one 1 USB bus (buy an extension with USB slots) but at that price (and also the more they sell the better the next models will become)
more information can be found here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aakash_%28tablet%29
http://www.akashtablet.com/
although it looks as if you can only pre-order in the state and that the older model has been sold-out completely
well, at that price my whole family will have one (because you can also do internetphoning so my phonebill will disappear more or less over time)
this also coïncides with Microsoft's strategy to patent a tablet that can be used as smartphone, laptop and tablet at the same time (this will hurt the more expensive smartphones, imagine videoconferencing with your tablet, even an 7 inch). THe problem will be price but maybe as millions of tablets will be produced and everyone will have one (or more laying around) just as we have a mobile phone the prices will go down (you can now already buy tablets around 150 euro's at several chains).
so when people talk about getting more computers in schools, I say, stupid, get many tablets and stronger computers for the bigger and more difficult work
by the way, all higher schools in India will be obliged to put all their educational material online for their students
they are only capable of producing now 700 tablets a day (having sold already 2 million above inventory) and will only be capable to deliver in the coming months, so when you pay one, you only get it several months later (which is a bit risky with currency troubles and other parts and social-political troubles and so on).
the other problem for the public is that the Indian Government will place another multimillion order (they are talking about 10 to 12 million tablets for this year alone) for cheap tablets, increasing the pressure on these firms because they are receiving 100.000 orders at least every day but will by april only be capable to produce 70.000 tablets a day which makes a backlock of several millions of tablets. THe indian government is quite angry that the firm didn't deliver first all of the ordered tablets by them before selling them to the public - probably afraid that some-one else much bigger would copy the idea. But there is no way the firm will be able to do it alone or on its own infrastructure and management (the helpdesk and ordering mechanism is totally overcharged).
the devices should be in the Indian shops also by march or later
it seems that at that price even corporations are ordering them en masse
Yep as a corporation you can win easily your investment back (no paperwork at meetings, the docs are on the server, easier agenda and other applicative contacts and coordination) and I really think there are about a 1000 things I didn't think of (as the owner also said on Bloomberg, you could use it in restaurants for the menu, for visits at museums or shopping guides through malls and so on.....)
connect them to free wifi (hardware identification) and you have a small cost investment for a much better user or guest experience and are client relationships not about experience and mood and excitement
I can also think about those millions that are being spent giving kids and other social programs expensive laptops and computers they probably don't need (or would rather rent or lend when they really need it) and the economies that could be done with changing those programs to cheap tablets (and software and Os companies have to change their business model from software to services and central infrastructure otherwise they will become too expensive for the popular tablet market).
another detail that is important is that it seems easier with those cheap devices to look at video than to do multitasking but didn't we have laptops and desktops for that, do not ask to much from one machine but use each machine at its best potential.
so there are two online applications that will definitely in particular profit from this specific tablet
* youtube
* skype
should I maybe also say that another Indian enterpreneur is building a small citycar for 2000 Euro
It also shows - again - that it is government who is the only one to have the muscle to influence the market and re-organise our economy and way of living.
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