Creating the World's Cheapest Tablet

Back in October, we discussed news that India had launched a $35 tablet. Now, JohnWiney writes with a story in the Globe and Mail about the device's development. Quoting: "Part of the difficulty in engineering such a device is that the underlying goal—that its final price should be within the means of those who can’t afford high-priced tablets—dictates crucial engineering and component decisions. A piece of high-impact-resistant glass, such as the touchscreen face of an iPad, can cost upward of $20. Datawind’s touchscreen glass, which the company had engineered down the street, costs less than $2, though it won’t allow for luxuries like pinch-and-zoom finger swiping. There were also compromises on processing power: Datawind’s 366 megahertz processor costs less than $5, a fraction of the $15-plus price tag on the chips that power iPads and other comparable tablets. And while the decision to run Google’s free Android mobile operating system on the gadget saves money, it requires coders to dig deep into the Linux kernel that underpins the software, tweaking it until it runs smoothly on Datawind’s weaker processor."

World's cheapest tablet

[multimediavt]

You mean slate and flint? Pen and paper? Or, I'll give you the more advanced, yet clumsy, Etch-A-Sketch.

366 MHz?

[0100010001010011]

Ha. You old people are so funny. You could never do anything real on a 366 MHz processor. I mean, like, the Android I got for christmas has at LEAST 1200 megahertzes. I bet they had at least that when they went to that moon or invented the awesome SR-71.

Who are these indian kids that would even get this. I would be soooo mad if someone got me this for christmas. Such a horrible gift. No one could ever even use it.

Let them have the original iPhone. [wikipedia.org]

Re:Race to the bottom

[SuricouRaven]

"It's not that Linux isn't a great OS (I use it for server-side stuff) but it certainly doesn't provide the polished overall experiences that Microsoft or Apple do."

Major flamewar imminent! EVERYONE, GET TO THE BUNKER!

Re:Race to the bottom

[dakara]

Major flamewar imminent! EVERYONE, GET TO THE BUNKER!

Major flamewar imminent! EVERYONE, GET TO THE CHOPPA!
FTFY

Re:366 MHz?

[Anonymous Coward]

My palm usually works in the 1/2 to 2 Hz range, and I have no complaints, even fireworks at times.