
First look at India's 2nd-generation, USD $40 tablet - nkoren
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18581885
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stcredzero
What are the differences needed to build a smartphone for the developing world
markets?

In other words, what really sucks about smartphones in the developing world
right now? Also note, that this is very likely to be different for different
markets, and that the developing world is not one market, but many.

For one thing, I suspect that there are places where charging every week would
be much better than charging every day. The device should also be designed as
a standalone device, and it would also need to be backed by cloud
infrastructure situated to create favorable latency and bandwidth for each
market.

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listic
I, on the contrary, keep wondering who are the people for whom charging every
day is much preferable to charging every week. Because most of the devices are
obviously made for such people.

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mdkess
It's a question of the trade-offs to achieve that week of battery life. I have
an extended battery for my phone which makes the phone bulky, but the battery
lasts for nearly two days on a charge. If I were to significantly underclock
the CPU and GPU, turn down the screen brightness, disable apps from running in
the background, turn off GPS, keep data off, get an even bigger battery, etc.,
I could probably get a week of battery out of it, if not more. That would take
away a lot from the experience though, and since I'm almost always near a
power source, I'd rather keep the above features and charge every day. If you
weren't, you might think that those tradeoffs were fair.

That's an interesting point that the parent post made - we probably shouldn't
be thinking about these devices as just underclocked versions of first world
devices. I think that you could design a positive user experience with all of
the restrictions that I listed above (not ideal, but still positive), but it's
not going to be achieved by disabling features of a super phone/tablet.

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stcredzero
_> turn down the screen brightness_

Something like a Pixel-Qi screen would be beneficial in cloudless desert
climates. An entirely reflective screen might be even better. City dwellers
have no need to think about this, but there are many parts of the world where
the outdoors aren't illuminated at night. If people are about after dark, they
are likely to already have their own source of illumination with them.

A thicker, more robust form factor that's waterproof and buoyant might be
beneficial for other climates. June through September is India's Monsoon
season. That doesn't strike me as the friendliest climate for an iPhone.

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nkoren
Tl;dr: 20% Cheaper, double the processor speed, capacitative touch-screen,
nifty built-in development environment, longer but still fairly sad battery
life, and meshuggah old-school socialist distribution policies.

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mtgx
In India probably even a $200 Nexus 7 is considered too expensive for most
people, but I can't help but feel that in the long term they would be better
served by at least a $100 tablet (like Novo7) with the latest version of
Android (this one is still running Android 2.xx), and with a battery that can
last at least 8 hours turned on, so the students can use it all day in class.
Why bother making a tablet for students that lasts only 3 hours and is still
pretty slow?

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AndrewDucker
"The World Bank estimates that 41.6 percent of India's population lives below
$1.25 per day and 75.6 percent live below $2 per day."

A $100 tablet is staggeringly beyond their reach. A $40 tablet that can be
shared amongst several people might be doable.

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mtgx
Right. So you're saying that from their perspective even this kind of tablet
is a big deal for them. I can understand that. The good news is that the
hardware price for these kind of devices is dropping fast (at least by 30% per
year), so in 2-3 years they should be getting pretty decent tablet for that
price. If you look at what $500-$1000 PC's and the Internet have done for the
more advanced countries, these very affordable tablets should do the same for
the whole of India and other Asian or African countries.

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AndrewDucker
I totally agree. Moore's Law equivalents mean that this technology is becoming
more affordable very quickly.

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keithpeter
With huge consequences for access to information and high quality teaching /
learning materials

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anuraj
The first tablet was a failure. It did not reach students, and the limited
ones that eventually made to users had huge quality issues. I am not very
hopeful of this version either, given the fact that it is promoted by India's
notoriously corrupt bureaucracy.

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mc32
They have tracking enabled on the devices so that they know who's in
possession of a given tablet at any time.

I understand that from an inventory control perspective, but I wonder the
privacy concerns of the tracking implemented.

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Create
...OLPC, Android "activation" etc.: very few wonder besides you. Most people
aren't concerned, and that is the norm.

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btian
I reckon the Raspberry Pi is much more suitable than the tablet in the
applications that he pointed out (C, C++).

Also, anyone knows how much the Indian government has subsidized the project
so that they can sell at $40?

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alokm
But the tablet enables the students to have hands on approach with a screen
and input method. Raspberry Pi lacks in this respect.

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gauravsc
India is good at producing cheaper technologies(PSLv is an example) and this
will create a way for future tablet technologies to be cheaper and affordable.

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pm90
Its actually not that simple. All the areas in which India has produced
innovation/breakthroughs under the aegis of a govt. agency have all been
"special cases". For e.g India's atomic research programme comes under the
Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) which was created specifically to avoid
bureaucratic hassles (it should have ideally been under the Ministry of
Science & Tech, but operates autonomously). It is this agency which provided
the funding and direction and enabled the scientists to focus on R&D rather
than the bureaucracy. The tablet project, on the other hand, seems to me like
a publicity stunt.

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SwaroopH
Yes, let's spend more tax payer money, get more good will since the first
attempt was such a grand success.

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ehosca
because the first one was a runaway success right?

