India's $10 / $20 Computer Intro'ed, But It's No Laptop

India's $10 answer to the OLPC XO-1, the "Sakshat" (which means "before your eyes") was unveiled today in Tirupati. Thing is, there haven't been any pictures of the darn thing posted anywhere, except for the picture I managed to grab from The Hindu (above). It's no laptop.

The Sakshat is supposed to have 2GB of RAM, wi-fi as well as wired Ethernet. With all that, it's hard to believe the laptop can cost $20 - 30 (prototype cost), much less $10. Component costs alone, without even including the case and operating system, would seem to be higher than that.

However, perhaps this is the key to the price of the device. The Hindu described the Sakshat as:

The 10" long and 5" wide hand-held device, resembling a palmtop or a modem, helps e-learners access the Web easily. Priced versions of e-content available on the Net can be accessed through this device.

So, we had it wrong, after all. Or in fact, the Indian government had it wrong. The Sakshat, it's not truly a laptop, as there is no screen and keyboard, and in fact, at the intro they said that it is a storage device holding data which can be accessed by a user by connecting this device to a laptop.

Eh? Why they are trying to call this a laptop is anyone's guess.

Besides that, let's not forget: "you get what you pay for." I'm still skeptical of the $10, or even $30 price tag for this thing, even with the reduced expectations.