Simputer
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The Simputer is a small inexpensive handheld computer, intended to bring computing power to the masses of India and other developing countries. The device was designed by the Simputer Trust, a non-profit organization formed in November 1999. The word "Simputer" is an acronym for "simple, inexpensive and multilingual people's computer", and is a trademark of the Simputer Trust.
It uses an Intel StrongARM 206 MHz processor powered by three AA batteries, has 64 megabytes of RAM, 32 MB of flash memory and can use cheap removable smartcards, each able to hold 8KB of data. It includes text-to-speech software and runs the Linux operating system. Similar in appearance to the Palm Pilot class of handheld computers, the touch sensitive screen is operated on with a stylus; simple handwriting recognition software is provided by the program Tapatap. The simputer, however, it must be noted is much more powerful than any available Palm Pilot and is closer to a full fledged PC. The Simputer specifications are released under an open distribution license called the Simputer General Public License or the SGPL. The organisation is actively encouraging free software developers to port their applications to the simputer.
Pilot production of the Simputer started in September 2002. From 2004 onwards it is commercially available for $240.
By 2005, sales of simputers have failed to live up to the ambitious goal; only 4000 simputers have sold while the initial expection was the sale of 50,000 units. [1] (http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/15/0050205&from=rss) Some suspect that this may be due to the price of ordinary PC laptops dropping to the point at which the simputer loses its price competitiveness. Another reason could be that the poor have no need of computers before their basic needs (such as electricity) are met.
External links
- http://www.simputer.org/
- BBC News, 10 September, 2001 Computer deal for India's poor (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1535992.stm)
- Outlook India, September 22, 2002: Pilot production of Simputer begins (http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=85140)
- http://dmoz.org/Computers/Systems/Handhelds/Open_Source/Simputer/
- Amida Simputer (http://amidasimputer.com)
- Encore Simputer (http://www.simputerland.com)
- Simputer Evangelist blog (http://cherlin.blogspot.com)
- Reuters, January 8, 2004 Simputers for Bhutan (http://www.undp.org.bt/unv/UN%20gets%20Simputer%20for%20Bhutan%20project.htm)de:Simputer