How a $20 tablet from India could blindside PC makers, educate billions | Hacker News Reader

How a $20 tablet from India could blindside PC makers, educate billions

qz.com

13 pointsdonohoe8 comments

My country (Uruguay) deployed the OLPC, but the problem is that teachers are not prepared to take advantage of it. I worry that India will make the same mistake.

I interviewed some teachers, and they praised the fact that most children were inquisitive and taught themselves how to use the main programs quickly. But they also cricicized that they disrupted classes too much, and the lack of support from the education ministry.

Teachers are much more resistant than kids to use them.

Another problem is that the XO laptops break A LOT, and when they're functional, kids forget to charge them before class, no idea how a tablet will fare.

I also believe that the tablet form factor is much better suited for class use. I dislike the fact that the screen in a laptop breaks visual contact (tablets are much better at that), and laptops are not the ideal form factor for books (I'd rather have e-ink, but a tablet would be multipurpose).

Amazing how something with the potential to impact so much gets so little attention because it's not a kickstarter?

I don't know, I'm trying not to be negative here but the company mentioned and the numerous under $x (where x= 200, 100, 20) Indian computer stories that have the potential to change Indian education have mostly been vapourware and/or failures.

Contrast this (and here I try to redeem myself in terms of positiveness) to the Raspberry Pi project which not only delivered but over delivered, even though there were delays.

The first version of this product was criticised; the second version is better.

(http://www.akashtablet.com/aakash/index.html)

There's a commercial version that anyone can buy. This is more than $20! But it's still cheap and reasonably specc'd.

(http://www.akashtablet.com/ubislate/index.html)

Some comments yesterday (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4769265) suggested that they're already building 100,000 units, which is pretty good.

The linked articles have some interesting information as well.

http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/15/hardware-is-dead/

Decently spec'd tablets are already selling U$ 35 in China (though, from personal experience, the real cost is higher due to lack of quality control).

Edit: the same thing happened with the 1st gen Aakash: "Hundreds of Aakashes arrive at IIT Rajasthan for testing; a third of the devices don't start at all."

I'm also excited about the potential of tablets as enablers of new business models :) . It's a nice time to be an entrepreneur :)

Someone tried shipping Kindles to Africa. It wasn't a great experience.

And they've tried using the big Kindle DX in US colleges, but that was also not a great success.

It's a shame, because it is exciting tech.

US Colleges - (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e185bce2-b76a-11df-839a-00144feabd...)

WSJ calls Kindles "rugged" (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230376810457746...)

Gigohm says nearly half the Kindles sent to Ghana broke (http://gigaom.com/2012/04/27/worldreader-kids-e-readers-kind...)

But Worldreader have turned this into an opportunity, by launching an independent repair centre (http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2012/06/13/worldreader-lau...)

Recycling electronics could be valuable for developing nations. It's such a shame that unscrupulous people ignored any semblance of safe and ethical working conditions, and now it's not legal to send electronics from the UK to developing nations to get recycled.

I agree that the current Kindle is not the best format for college - I have one, and I'm doing a business degree (technology MBA).

In my experience, both paper and traditional tablets (such as the iPad) are much better suited for case studies and reference material - the refresh rate and lack of touchscreen of the older Kindles are both dealbreakers, and it would need a tablet-like UX to be more usable.

I actually use my Android cell phone for classes, download the PDFs of the case studies and all that. I still prefer paper (I'm used to spreading multiple pages around, something you can't do with a tablet. Maybe with a Microsoft "Surface".. err Microsoft PixelSense).

Doesn't HN still usually applaud initiative for "so I built it". In this case it's not vapourware and it's a step forward, in an area where there's few options and a continuing need.

I agree this could just be a PR/storytelling issue.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com