[Azure]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Why the $35 tablet will never exist

From your same article.

For example: In February last year, the Indian government announced a $10 to $20 laptop called the Shaksat. Like the $35 tablet, the Shaksat had 2GB of RAM, but details on other components were impossible to come by.

It was to be rolled out in six months and was to be used by millions of students across India, transforming the Indian educational system and economy. So, where is the Shaksat?

In 1999, a group of Indian scientists and engineers developed a low-cost computer for the poor called the Simputer. It was a Linux-based pen-and-touch tablet with text-to-speech capability. The Simputer was announced with great fanfare by the Indian government. The goal was to sell 50,000, but only 4,000 were ever sold.

I like this part.

The $35 tablet announcement was nothing more than shameless political opportunism. The world's media were suckered (again) -- hook, line and sinker.

The whole affair is a shameful, disgusting spectacle that represents everything that's wrong with politics, the media and public gullibility in the new idiocracy.

Cheap computers are nice. But what we really need is a little common sense.