By 
In an effort to get technology into the hands of more of their citizens, the Indian government tendered a vender to supply them with 100,000 Android tablets priced at the equivalent of a low, low government subsidized $35. Now that vendor, HCL Infosystems, is being dropped from the deal after they “started listing some additional, unacceptable, conditions” for the delivery of the tablets that were due for release January 15th. As such, the original tender is off.
But HCL claims to have a new tender in, and the Indian government is still saying the tablets will be out by mid-2011. They go on to state that the goal of a January release was HCL’s idea. We’ll believe it when we see it.
[via CrunchGear]
VendOr
:-)
Why don’t they spend their money on people in slums? As much as I like tech being supported by governments, I can’t help but think they have better uses of tax payers money. After all, the buyers have already paid for it and the people who don’t buy… well they paid for it to
And on top of that why is it for them what about others that are in debt having money problems or young pairents tryn to make it though school with a 8 month old and one on the way. The Indians should have to pay what the rest of us have to. I’d like to pay 35 for one for my wife’s bday but were white. We are 100% Americans living in our country we don’t get free stuff.
wow…this doesn’t affect you guys why are you complaining…they are trying to do something and your complaining…give it a break
One thing I applaud the Indian government for, is the fact that the vendor is trying to add conditions probably money to the deal and they cut em loose. The US government needs to take a note, as we let our contractors/vendors sign a contract then gauge us to death, with add on fees…hooray for the Indian government
LOL Drew. Typical American reasoning.
Drew you are ignorant
This is the second time the project is postponed. Last year August they already canceled the Netbook and then changed things to become a tablet and now the tablet should be ready, things shift another half a year or more. This smells like a political scam, and using the rule “follow the money”, I think someone should check who is gaining money already now on this project, to find out why it exists …
My problem with these projects is that they are illogical. Indeed, mass-production can reduce costs and hence get the price down. I will not even challenge the low $35 price, but logic would dictate that if delivering 1,000,000 pieces to India can bring the price down to $35 and make the company producing it a profit, that producing 10,000,000 pieces for the complete world would make it even more profitable.
So, why is HCL not just addressing other countries or even normal customers with such a tablet? Probably because they could not get the price down that low, leading probably to the “started listing some additional, unacceptable, conditions” statement.
If anyone can make such a cheap tablet, then I would guess it would be the Chinese (disregarding any patents that would be in the way), yet even their cheapest offers are still a lot more than double the $35 mark mentioned here and probably would only withstand a couple of days of normal student-abuse …
In short: I really hope it does come and available to ALL in the world, but I have serious doubts.