The Indian Government is all set to display the Rs 500 laptop on 3 February 2009 in Tirupati, at the launch of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology.

The Rs 500 laptop has been developed by students of Vellore Institute of Technology, scientists at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, IIT Madras and Semiconductor Complex, a public sector undertaking. It would be equipped with 2 GB of memory, WiFi, fixed Ethernet, expandable memory, and consume just 2 watts of power, say media reports.

At this stage, the price of the laptop is working out to be $20 but with mass production it is bound to come down, reports The Economic Times.

In November 2005, at the World Summit on the Information Society held in Tunis, Massachussets Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Nicholas Negroponte, unveiled a $100 laptop computer, The Children’s Machine, designed for students in the developing world. The project is part of a broader programme by One Laptop Per Child, a non-profit organisation started by Negroponte and other Media Lab faculty, to extend Internet access in developing countries.

Many companies were working hard to break the sub-$100 notebook price point since its launch. But, ultimately India is ready to showcase a notebook that costs only $10, which is so far the cheapest computing device in India.

Source : www.domain-b.com

10$ laptop? Sounds cool. If this is real and if India will be able to manufacture these laptops then it will laptops will no longer be a dream for people in rural areas. but here some of my thoughts about this laptop.

1. The laptop consumes only 2 watts of power? : The lowest power consumption processor needs 2.4 watts how can the entire laptop (screen, wifi, keybaord) consume only 2 watts of power?
2. Wifi : Wifi in India is still not popular. What is the use of wifi in a place where people don’t know what is wifi.
3. Linux OS : At this cost I am sure that the OS will not be windows. How many of you find it easy to operate a linux box. If this laptop is mainly concentrated for children? I am sure they will have hard time using this laptop.

There are lots of unanswere questions like HDD capacity, the scree size etc. Lets hope this is real

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