14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, the media was ablaze with a little something that most would have liked to believe true but some considered downright impossible to carry out: the $10 laptop designed for educational reasons, a project announced by none other than India's Minister of State for Higher Education. At the time, no technical specifications were made public, which only raised more questions about government subsidies. As it turns out, the $10 price tag was just a misunderstanding, and it has been duly corrected in the meantime.
In fact, the $10 price point will actually be $100, which brings the project closer to a real fully functional portable computer system. D. Purandeswari, Minister of State for Higher Education, clarified the misunderstanding yesterday. Apparently, it all started from a transcript of the Minister's speech, which the government's press bureau later provided to reporters. According to said transcript, India was trying to develop a $10 laptop, which would be designed for educational applications.
Since then, the transcript has been updated to reflect the real price of the laptop in question. Unfortunately, the details were, yet again, left out, which means that there still are a few questions pending. But even so, India's goal continues to be laudable and, should this project turn out to be successful, more countries may follow suit and try to improve the quality of education.
The $100 price point for a laptop designed for educational purposes is closer to reality, if we're also to take into account Jointech's product. The J-Pro Mini laptop is touted as ideal for business, education, entertainment, office and home, which is a rather impressive feat, especially given its $99 price tag. With all that, as it turns out, this one too is not really a $99 laptop, since interested parties must purchase about 1,000 units of it in order to get it for this particular pricing.
Either way, it will certainly be interesting to watch how India's project shapes up, so keep an eye on this space for when the $100 laptop everyone is talking about materializes.