30 April 2007 - 20:57
Computers in India for Rs 4,500 (US$ 100)
An Indian company, Novatium, based in Chennai is to sell PCs for US$ 100 or less (Rs 4,500).According to the CEO Alok Singh, Novatium has a target of 10 million customers over the next 5 years.
The company can offer such low prices by making use of ‘thin computing’ services, which means that the complex computing tasks are moved to a central server and the desktop PC is made relatively simple to just provide access to what is being processed.
The Net PC package — consisting of the CPU, a 14-inch CRT monitor, a keyboard and a mouse — has been tentatively priced at Rs.4, 450 (roughly $100). When Net PC hits the market at this price, it could well be the most economical home PC ever.
Whereas a PC in India can cost upwards of Rs 40,000, 140 subscribers in Chennai have been paying a monthly rental of Rs.449 for which they are able to log on to the Internet using either Windows (Network version) or Linux (Ubuntu), run applications such as Microsoft Office, run educational packages, play games and download content that will be stored in the server.
Novatium says after the successful trial in Chennai they plan to expand into 6-7 big cities in the next year.
Novatium was founded by Ray Stata Chairman of US-based Analog Devices, Netcore Solutions Managing Director Rajesh Jain and Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT Madras.
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