The $10 laptop computer that India announced last week turns out to be something less than a computer and its cost is at least double the initial estimate, The Times of India reports.
The ministry that announced the invention last week had called it a low-power laptop computer and said the devices would be available in India within six months at a cost of just $10 apiece. The machines were to be part of an initiative to increase the number of students pursuing a higher education. But the prototype unveiled today, called “Sakshat,” turned out to be a computing device with a hard disk for storing e-books, e-journals, and other educational materials, the newspaper said.
A writer on Wired’s Gadget Lab blog described the device as “little more than a box with sockets” and pointed out that it was useless without the addition of a more costly input device and monitor.
As for its cost, accounts vary. Ministry officials said the price works out to be about $20 now, but they think it will come down when the device is in production. —Charles Huckabee
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