Cheap Tablet PC at $35

Another iPad PC but costs 1/14th of the current price tag …Mumbai, India has unveiled the prototype of a touchscreen tablet costing only $35. This cheap tablet PC targets the student market and is expected to be in production by 2011.

The moment the Indian government could find a manufacturer for their Linux based tablet, this iPad clone would become the “world’s cheapest gadget innovation to hit the market out of India. India is popular to be the home of other cheap innovations like the $2000 Nanocar, $16 water purifier and the $2000 open heart surgery.

Just like Apple’s iPad features, the tablet prototype features word processing, PDF reader, web browsing, and video conferencing. It also has a solar power option which is sold separately. It does not have a hard disk, instead, data are stored in memory card just like in mobile phones.

Five years ago, Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder of MIT’s Media Lab unveiled a $100 laptop prototype for their ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD project. But the cost is still way to high and unaffordable to most students in developing countries. India rejected that as too expensive and embarked on a multiyear effort to develop a cheaper option of its own.

“This $35 tablet innovation is our answer to MIT’s $100 computer,” human resource development minister Kapil Sibal told the Economic Times when he unveiled the device Thursday.

Sibal turned to students and professors at India’s elite technical universities to develop the $35 tablet after receiving a “lukewarm” response from private sector players. He hopes to get the cost down to $10 eventually.

The $35 price is plausible according to Mamta Varma, a minitry spokesperson due to the drop of hardware cost. The new tablet is designed to cut hardware costs like not putting any hard disk and uses open-source software to further add to savings.

Varma said several global manufacturers, including at least one from Taiwan, have shown interest in making the low-cost device, but no manufacturing or distribution deals have been finalized. She declined to name any of the companies.

The new tablet design is expected to be sold in the market in India for $20 since the government plans to subsidize part of the production cost.