14 DAY TRIAL // Despite initial beliefs, it looks like the $10 laptop recently unveiled in India isn’t actually a laptop after all, but rather a handheld device that will allow its users to connect to the Internet and access educational resources. Moreover, it seems that the touted price point of $10 has also been somewhat far-fetched, as the aforementioned device is now expected to be priced somewhere between $20 and $30. This could be good news for the people behind the OLPC project, as this device was initially believed to turn out as a competitor for the XO laptop, a portable computer system designed for educational purposes.
According to an article on “The Hindu”, an online edition of India’s national newspaper, the device unveiled on Tuesday, tagged as an “ultra low-cost” computing device that can “make wonders”, is really 10-inch long and 5-inch wide, resembling a palmtop rather than a laptop. The news goes against initial reports, according to which the device developed in collaboration with the Indian government, was designed as a laptop, much like the low-cost portable computer systems we see today.
In addition, it looks it will become available with a price tag that settles somewhere in the range of $20 to $30, rather than $10, according to earlier reports. However, it appears that the goal of the product remains the same, that is to provide a student with an educational tool for which he or she will have to pay the same amount it would spend on textbooks for a year.
It is believed that the price of the Sakshat can be brought down, through cost-cutting practices. This could enable the 10-by-5-inch device to cost somewhere closer to $10, as it was initially believed. On the other side of things, it looks like OLPC’s XO2 laptop is still on for becoming the cheapest laptop on the market.