India jumped on the low-cost tablet. The 35 Dollar Tablet Computer
Am I glad to hear this; it was high time India jumped on the low-cost tablet and its happened!
Kapil Sibal announced it, and described it as a dream project. The tablet is intended for children from the primary to university level. With a package pricing approaching 35 USD, and finally to cost even less, it seems economical as well.
In a tablet form-factor and using an unspecified variant of Linux (that some have said might be Android), the cost should remain low while offering a wide range of functionality. The device is said to be support video conferencing, viewing a wide selection of video and image files, word processing, de/compressing files, printing with CUPS, full Internet browsing with Javascript and Flash, wireless communications, and remote device management. That’s a lot of features for a device that’s intended to sell for as low as 35 USD.
The technical specification is still not clearly known at this time, but from looking at the pictures and the video (embedded below) it seems it’ll have a 7” color touch screen, 2 gigs of storage, WiFi, Ethernet, and very minimal power consumption (meaning a long battery life, something very necessary in India).
This is just a prototype and there’s a long way to go before the product is available to students. The Indian government wants to put the tablet into production by 2011, but hasn’t yet found partners to build it. I’ll be watching and would love to get my hands on one of these devices when they’re out in the market.
The 'Google' of Upside Learning, as he is fondly called, Abhijit plays a key role in guiding the Instructional Designers and is a chief member of the Innovation team.
With over 15 years of professional experience in multimedia design and development, he has been active in the field of digital learning design for the past 12 years, and has worked on design driven projects for multimedia kiosk software, interactive CD–ROMs, multimedia instructional simulations, game-based learning environments, computer–based training, web–based training, and learning management systems and standards. He has managed multiple technical instructional design and development projects for various Fortune 500 companies at another eLearning company and also has presented learning sessions at various L&D events like mLearnCon, co-hosted webinars alongside leading industry experts, co-authored an eBook on Mobile Learning, and authored whitepapers on Mobile Learning and Game–based Learning.
A Mechanical Engineer from the University of Pune, Abhijit is interested in multifarious subjects ranging from genetics, evolutionary biology, biochemistry, engineering, technology, computing to electronic games, media, communication, and the design of user experience and interaction.
