Almost 2 years after surfacing as a rumor, the $10 (Rs. 500) Laptop finally seems to be a reality. It has been designed by students at VIT, IIT and scientists at IISC. Not many details are out yet, but it will have 2 GB RAM, Wi-Fi, LAN and will run with just 2 watts of power. A prototype is set to be showcased at Tirupati, on Feb 3.
If it does turn out to be true, and not vaporware like many expect it to be, it will finally mean a computer in every hand. The cost is supposed to escalate to $20, but even that is damn cheap – cheaper than any mobile phone. Even though I’m skeptical, I do hope they manage to pull it off. Fingers crossed!
BTW, My bet is on it being some kind of a thin client, which connects directly to the National Mission on Education portal, with no built in storage, and just a basic OS centred around a browser. That may be the aftereffects of the GDrive Googasm though. :P
[ Via TOI ]
EDIT: It’s 4th Feb now, the release of the $10 laptop turned out to be a “damp squib” for lots of reasons.
1. It actually costs $30 right now.
2. There was no actual launch, just another announcement.
3. It seems to be some kind of over sized storage device, which cannot be used independently
4. It will probably go up in vapors, as many expected it to. 
January 30th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Error.
It costs 100$.
January 30th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
I mean, thats what they’ll tell when they would unveil it.
January 30th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
I guess the most expensive component is the display
January 30th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
@Harsh, yea seems it will.
@Mike, yep, we will know soon.
January 31st, 2009 at 4:59 pm
There won’t be a display!
February 4th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
And it turned out to be just like I said, no display and no keyboard. And its about 30$ instead.
February 4th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Yea, turned out to be a joke. How did we even expect something like this from India when OLPC couldn’t do it.
October 15th, 2010 at 4:59 am
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