India Sets Incredible Goal: $10 Laptop

Right now, there are countless projects in development, all of them meant to bring us, regular customers, a $100 notebook. As a matter of fact, the currently emerging netbook market started from the same concept, namely that of developing a very cheap portable computer system that could provide for users the very basics in computing technology. Paradoxically, most of today's netbooks are priced in the $399-$499 area. As nothing is set in stone, this too could change soon, as a $10 laptop is currently being designed.

That is correct: $10 is all you will have to pay for your own ultra-cheap laptop. Unbelievable as it may sound, the Indian Institute of Science in Bagalore, in collaboration with the Indian Institute Technology in Chennai, is said to be working on precisely such a project. D. Purandeswari, Minister of State for Higher Education, said at a conference held in Delhi that this project was meant to raise the quality of higher education in India.

Unfortunately, the Minster stopped short at giving out any of the technical specifications of this $10 laptop, so no one can really know how it is going to look like. Still, taking in consideration the extremely low price tag that will accompany it on the market, it's highly probable we won't be dealing with another Atom-powered netbook. In fact, the low pricing of this upcoming product could actually set the stage for another portable computer market, one that would allow users to purchase their own laptops using the spare change they have in their wallets.

Still, the general belief is that a $10 laptop is not a realistic product in the near future. Even if Jointech has already managed to develop a $99 laptop, the $10 price point still continues to be more of a fantasy, even if we're not talking of a fully-fledged computer system. In fact, according to Gartner, a $100 laptop "will not be a realistic target for the next three years," not to mention that such a product could be detrimental to companies.