Against a cell phone, the tablet's screen is a compelling argument. However, I don't know if really poor people (who are mostly illiterate) would go for a tablet over a *television* -- I've observed that even people living in illegally constructed shacks next to train tracks always have a DTH antenna dish sticking out from the roof. My belief is that: 1. TV's are dead simple to operate -- turn them on and they work. If you can't navigate your magical tablet's touchscreen, you have a magical paperweight. 2. There's decent infrastructure in place (in India) to get a direct-to-home subscription. I've been to some pretty remote places in India (places that are accessible only using off-road vehicles and are completely cut-off for three months during winter) and nearly all these houses had dish antennas. AFAIK, 3G-based data plans aren't that ubiquitous yet (you could only get them in certain cities in India last time I checked -- about 2 months ago). The battery question is an interesting one -- I read a review which stated that the battery life is two hours. I've observed in urban slums that (illegally) hooking up wires to overhead electricity supply cables (a dangerous practice, to be sure) is common. I'm not claiming that this is the norm everywhere, but financial pressure often eliminates batteries anyway :) I'm going to keep on harping on the "poor but intelligent/talented student" angle. These are the people who'll benefit the most from such a device. Imagine being able to read textbooks on this! Btw, I also discovered in the review that the App Store / Marketplace is disabled, which is *not cool*. Maybe they don't expect the target users to have connectivity, but this severely limits the platform. There are a ton of free apps out there which the users cannot get, and now custom delivery platforms will have to be built for every project (I'm thinking of textbooks, telemedicine, the fieldwork apps like the Verbal Autopsy stuff, etc) I've rambled enough here. My summary would be that this is a giant step forward, but the poorest of the poor (think indigent poverty) won't magically lift themselves out of poverty using this one device. However, it does generate lots of exciting possibilities for "slightly-better-off" segments and it can be an enabling device for several projects on a shoestring budget. -- Rahul On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 1:00 PM, Fritz Meissner <fritz.meissner@gmail.com> wrote:
Just brainstorming a hypothetically compelling reason: consumption of locally-made movies, which I'm given to understand currently happens wholesale on cellphones in India. Would the move to tablet form, i.e. bigger screen and (one would hope) better sound, make for a massively improved experience? The Aakash could be a better investment than a TV / DVD player, given the greater capacity and reusability of USB or SD cards compared to DVDs. Of course, the TV has a bigger screen, but it doesn't run on batteries. How much would a TV cost?
Fritz
On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 3:15 PM, Jerome White <jerome@cs.caltech.edu> wrote:
However, there is a "rural/poor" segment that could afford this: those making between 5 and 10 thousand Rupees a month. In fact it's what some spend on a mobile phone. However, with the mobile, there is very compelling reason to make such an investment. A similarly compelling reason, from their perspective, to own this device isn't clear to me.
But, at least we've got another device to help us generate publications :)
jerome
On 06-Oct-2011, at 4:11 PM, Fritz Meissner wrote:
How much is $35 to the poorest of the poor? I recall an economics study that paid Indian workers the equivalent of a monthly salary, I think that was 50USD... 35USD is beyond cheap in the West but perhaps still not affordable in that context.
OTOH if the tablet is locally made, perhaps just the work that the manufacturer provides will be beneficial.
Fritz
On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 1:32 AM, Joyojeet Pal <joyojeet@gmail.com> wrote: I agree with Yaw on this -- sure, it is great that this technology is so cheap, and one can argue that similar such efforts have brought up new technology innovations (Netbook etc) and various other benefits, what is deeply problematic is the idea that this will solve the issues of development in India, and Indian minister Kapil Sibal's announcing the project as being some kind of a dig out of exclusion (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/india-announces-35-tablet-...)
If you look at UNDP's latest HDI report on India, you may find that someone should find this claim at least quixotic, given that the country ranks 119th in the world for what ranks are worth. India as a state spends among the lowest on education (3.6%) and healthcare (1.1%) and has an income inequality problem that is by all measure growing yearly, gender inequity is 0.748 (on a scale of the 'best' at 0.212 and 'worst' at 0.814). the average Indian spends 4.4 years in formal schooling.. the list goes on and on.
i'm not saying this is not a significant achievement, my concern is tying this to development in such a way, in fact specifically in the perception that this could be the state's part in providing development in india. i think it hurts the cause of folks working in this space at the very least.
On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 7:03 PM, Yaw Anokwa <yanokwa@gmail.com> wrote: the hype around this tablet is terrible.
i think it's great to have cheaper technology, but android tablets, even cheap $35 android tablets, will not lift villagers out of poverty. i wish it were that easy...
On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 15:49, Rahul Banerjee <banerjee@cs.washington.edu> wrote:
Sorry for the spam, but I couldn't resist sharing such wonderful news:
http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/India-announces-35-tablet-computer...
(Actually, the government is subsidising its price (which would be closer to $50), but it's still pretty amazing that something like this exists at all)
-- Rahul _______________________________________________ change mailing list change@change.washington.edu http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change
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