Ten Dollars for a Laptop? Head to India to Check it Out

Forget OLPC’s initiative to create the $100 laptop, a $10 laptop (called the Rs 500) prototype is ready to make an appearence in Tirupati, India. According to The Times of India, the cheap laptop aimed at children will be on display on February 3 at the launch of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Techology.

The article states that the $10 laptop project is an “answer to the $100 laptop of MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte that he was trying to hardsell to India.” Not only was the price of OLPC’s laptop too high but according to the article India Education officials doubted the technology in the non-profit’s XO laptop. Apparently, the price of the RS500 is currently around $20 and expected to come down by hitting mass production.

The $10 laptop is reported to be Wi-Fi capable and able to support 2GB of RAM. Left out of the article are details on the processor, etc. Intended to be used as an educational device, the Times reportst that the government ministry is working to get e-Book type content from publishers, including Macmillan, Tata McGraw Hill, Prentice-Hall and Vikas Publishing.

We don’t have any more details on this laptop, but as Brad from Liliputing notes it won’t be surprising if this device doesn’t actually take a laptop form factor and maybe more of a handheld, eBook device.