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Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 23:23:32 -0700 (PDT) From: Joaquim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [Goanet] INVITE: Talk on Simputers, Saturday morning Are the Simputers already on sale in Goa? Has anyone tried this product? can somebody give me the feedback on it if they have used it. Thanks Joaquim Joaquim, D-Link, the (Verna) Goa-based company is talking about beginning to manufacture Simputers in about a month's time. More details below. FN IT'S SIMPLE, THE SIMPUTER GETS ITS FINAL TOUCHES AT THE FACTORY By Frederick Noronha QUITE SOME TIME after it first attracted global attention for the boldness of its goals, the Simputer is slowly marching past finishing line. Some look at it with skeptism; others with hope. It's reputation has spread far and wide, and many are looking out for it to actually hit the markets. The Simputer promises low-cost and sharable computing through a small hand-held device that is capable of undertaking an amazing range of tasks. It could cost as little as US$200 in its low-end versions, while a Simputer Junior is being thought of which could cost even less than that price. This device is aimed at making computing affordable in the Third World's rural areas, which have been largely overlooked by multinationals who complain of a glut in global computing markets even as they make over-powered and over-costly computers that increasingly thousands of millions can't afford. Could this simple computing device -- at least in some small way -- challenge the logic of the market, and underline the need of IT reaching out to the poor? If US-returned Indian scientists can dare to dream to boldly -- despite the many difficulties en route -- could IT really reach out to meet the needs of the commonman, instead of simply mimicking Western trends and rushing where profit margins are maximum? "The poor are a largely neglected market, but they too have a huge commercial potential," argues Vinay L Deshpande, the chairman and CEO of the Bangalore-based Encore Software. Deshpande, till a few weeks back, was also the the president of the New Delhi-based MAIT, the association of IT manufacturers. Besides being involved in the design of the Simputer, Deshpande has now gone on to found one of the firms producing this piece of hardware that technology-watchers in India have been playing close attention to. "But for IT to be meaningful to the hundreds of millions of poor across India, it needs certain attributes. It should be low-cost, simple to use, and technology should also be 'de-mystified'," argues Deshpande. Besides, he argues, hardware in an Indian context need to run "independent" of the often-unreliable mains-power. It should be rugged and dust-resistant to cope with the heat and dust of this tropical country. Above all, it should be sharable -- just like other costlier gadgets (ranging from refrigerators to a jeep doing a distant trek) are shared in rural areas. "In India, technological devices are not owned but shared. If your neighbour does not have a fridge, it automatically means he has the right to keep the milk in your fridge. Same is the case with TVs," says Deshpande. Using a smart-card, the Simputer hopes to be sharable. "Even if a Simputer costing Rs 10,000 is too costly for a rural dweller, ten villagers could come together to own that," says he, optimistically. To make the Simputer easier to use, it incorporates icons, graphics and multi-lingual abilities. It also seeks to offer image/sound output and a touch-based input with voice feedback. "We hope to use it as a means to address all the population of India, not just literates," argues Deshpande. Proponents of the Simputer like Deshpande believe that this tiny piece of equipment could also help rural Indians find ways of earning a better living. "We hope that, in time, a villager could connect a Simputer at a pay-phone booth (which are common across India), dial up to a website, fetch the information about the best price payable for his potatoes using a very simple interface. This would be converted into speech and played back," says he. It could make life simpler too. Even a village postman could take across this small device, and make payments of 'money orders' -- the instrument which have been a popular way of transmitting money across rural India for decades. Using the smart cards, this delivery could be made simpler and far quicker too, argues Deshpande. Likewise, he says, the Simputer would have applications for education and literacy. Given its fairly high resolution 240 x 360 pixels screen, for its small size, it could be used for local language applications. One new application currently being worked on is using Simputers to check the health of mothers and foetus. It is hoped that portable ultrasound sensors could be suitably adapted to connect with Simputers, says Deshpande. Other applications for the Simputer are being worked out in the field of health and telemedicine; micro-banking; police work (information-retrieval, filing of first-information reports); land-records; meter reading; e-governance; and ticket-collection. "We've been getting a tremendous response from all over the world," says he. Some unexpected interest has also resulted in the Simputer project going further than initially planned. >From Italy has come an idea to link up the Simputer with a low-cost video camera. Using OCR (optical-character recognition) software, it plans to covert text to speech, and use this as a reader for the visually impaired. Two other entrepreneurs want to use the Simputer to control solar lighting and gobar gas plants in the villages. But these are only at the planning stage still. It's easy to develop more applications for the Simputer; and one's imagination is the only limitation. Even before the Simputer hits the market, one can develop applications for it, using the GNU/Linux interface. Critics of the Simputer have suggested that the falling costs of other hand-held computing devices make this not so useful. "Compared to other hand-helds, this one has a USB port, built-in modem, smart-card support, higher amounts of memory in addition to its low cost," says Deshpande. He also argues that it tries to reduce language barriers to computing, and will offer 'minimal' trouble in entry of form-based data, due to the smart-card interface, which would store profiles of each user. Now, the Simputer has tried to be flexible by working on differing models. Companies producing the Simputer are suppling these to bulk buyers, though those wanting it in smaller quantities have had to wait longer than expected. "We're working on units with low and high memory, and with varieties of screen resolution, both low and high. Besides, we are also planning a built-in battery backup. Some units plan to come with their own battery charger," says Deshpande. If all goes well -- and the scientists and technologists at Bangalore have -- no plans to give up, there are plans for a Simputer with its own cradle, says Deshpande, as he shows of how the look and feel of the Simputer has changed across various models. "Encore's Simputer will offer a simple e-mail client, a browser, and software for file transfer, MP3s, regional language usage and smart-card sample application," says he. Besides, Simputer is working to have "fairly thorough application development support". One handicap is that the success of the Simputer (and its price) would depend on what quantities it can be produced it. "Price is a function of manufacturing volumes," says Deshpande. In other words, a chicken-and-egg dilemma: more production, lower prices. But lower prices are needed first to step up demand for higher production. Currently, industry taxes and duties total 20-30% of the total cost of the Simputer. This includes Indian Customs, countervailing duties, Central Excise. This would mean that the final price of the Simputer now would range from Rs 10,500 to Rs 23,000 (for a deluxe colour model with 96 MB memory). Incidentally, in India, the delays to put out the Simputer in the market have led to some pessimism. But, elsewhere, the potential of this dream is already being realised. In December 2001, the New York Times called the Simputer the most significant technological innovation of the period. India's Ministry of IT has also awarded the first Dewang Mehta Award to this initiative. "We have dared to try and build them. It is now for you as users to come and ask for them," says a determined Deshpande. Quite a few of the key proponents of this venture happen to be returned expat Indians, dreaming of a chance to share the fruits of technology with their less fortunate countrymen. (ENDS) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SIMPUTER LINKS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Simputer www.simputer.org Simputer Mailing List www.groups.yahoo.com/group/simputer/ PicoPeta www.picopeta.com Swami Manohar [EMAIL PROTECTED] Vinay L Deshpande [EMAIL PROTECTED] NCoreTech www.ncoretech.com (Simputer developer kit here) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? 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