just that I am really feeling sick about the whole issue of Simputer.
Tell me more!
Sameer, which area would you like to know more about?
I want to know why you feel that way - I have only heard good things
about
the Simputer for a long time, but you seem to have a different view
OK...
Well, to start with, I liked the efforts put in by the IISc guys, but what most people fail to understand is that it was done while keeping a commercial aspect in mind which is where Encore comes in picture.
Now just considering the fact that they have targetted the Simputer at the Rural areas it seems to be a stupid to sell such an expensive device to them, where a more powerfull computing device can be sold at around the same costs.
I am still unable to convince myself that a handheld would be more usefull to a person from the rural place than a proper trasport, communication infrastructure, power lines and water supply.
So it comes around to the fact that those companies are basically trying to make money (or rather come out of their debts) by beating the drum in a sentimental "Made in India" band.
Hope I am clear now... As a project Simputer might be good... But as a product, its pathetic.
Warm Regards,
~Mayuresh
Dear Mayuresh,
A more powerful device doesn't mean more power in their hands. You could give them a p3 but that p3 will only have value as long as they're actually getting something out of the power. I did see the simputer at IISc in Bangalore and from what I could see, this has tremendous value as a information dissemination device. Philip was right in saying that the primary use is likely to be for output rather than input. This is definitely not a pathetic product.
You should check out this India today article http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20010219/adapters.shtml. It shows fisherman in kerala using GPS positining devices as well as cellphones. Wouldn't you call a GPS tracking device a sophisiticated device? I don't know its price, but its likely to be inexpensive. It has proven to be invaluable for these fisherman -- even saving lives. They have learnt to use this device (whatever the interface) and they also know its value. Please don't make the mistake of assuming that since they're poor and illiterate, they cannot ever learn to use a simple device like the simputer.
Relevant question here is whether there will be people who are willing to manufacture the device and also provide the content that is essential to the receiver of the content. I don't think a farmer in North India would be interested in the prices of fish down in kerala. The device is here as it the technology, but when do we see it in the hands of the masses?
- Mayank
Hi all, My two pence while we are on the subject.
The professed goal of the Simputer is a low cost simple to use device.
Costs of a product depend on (briefly) a) design costs, b) dies, moulds and tools, c) raw material d) marketing. If volumes are large a and b reduce to ignorable values. Which leaves c and d. Lets ignore d as a matter of individual idosyncracies and company policy. The I386 arch scores over all others on rm costs. An 810 board with a Cryix cpu and flash instead of drives will give you much better performance at the same costs as a simputer. Morover an 810 can be easily upgradable is available from multiple vendors and has all the software you would ever require. If you want to cut it fine there are several implementations of Ix86 cpu with VGA and peripherals and some combo of i/o (PCI, ISA ) buses available as single chip devices. They are also power effecient (compared to Cryix). As Mayuresh pointed out the simputer is to be plugged into a phone line, so portability & power effeciency is a non issue. Finding a phone line in the interiors is anyway not a computing issue and best left to the DOT.
Handhelds were developed with mobility as the primary goal. It is a tool for presenting very very brief synopsis of very important information and presumes that you are in a position to use and act on this info. In India where even the most rudimentary infrastructure is lacking, I think Simputer pong would be a good application while waiting for the ST bus or the tehesildar.
A corolary of mobility is very low power consumption. Hence simple architecture (read as strip_off_everything_ useful). Which resulted in "simple to use" software (useless). The arm development is progressing mainly because there are requirements where low power un attended operations are mandatory - industrial electronics- and developers are fed up of porting applications every 2nd year when their microcontrollers go obsolete. And ofcourse all this makes sense only under the opensource development framework.
Ease of use, fancy Gui's, phone list etc are farthest away from the development requirements for this arch.
Development effort is required at the software level for the Ix86 arch cause gadgets like the simputer can never hope to achieve the maturity and spread of the PC.
Which brings up the question how will any Company successfully commercalise such a product? Government subsidy? As somone pointed out our village dwellers are a very intelligent lot. They will quickly see thru the charade being enacted in the garb of bringing IT to the masses.
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jtdyahoo -
Mayank -
Mayuresh A Kathe