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Indian Babus Are No Steve Jobs
By siliconindia
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Friday, 21 October 2011, 02:53 IST |
25 Comments
The past follies seem to have faded in government's mind. In 2005, government had flagged down a $200 Mobilis computer, based on free Linux software and prior to that in 2002, a hand-held computer called the "Simputer," costing $240 was planned too, but both failed. As politicians were actively thinking of subsidizing older products, the computer industry had itself innovated to push the market price down.
Government all over again invested at least $5 million into a doubtful unproven product. Akash is likely to be a failure as computers are available at soil cheap prices. And phenomenal rise of cell phones is yet another reason.
It just takes merely $15 to own a basic Indian cell phone that is much cheaper than Akash. They can increasingly do things that computers and tablets do. Moreover, cell phones can be charged through batteries in areas with little or no electricity whereas for Akash an extra payment has to be done for wireless connection.
This expands the jeopardy of the Aakash project, not to mention the possible squander and fraud that typically accompanies Government initiatives like this. It may be inappropriate at this time when cell phone applications are multiplying at much lower cost. By endorsing the tablet, the government is making a gamble that could very well go wrong.
As an alternative, the Indian government's policies should put forward the utmost promising flexibility, and then leave it to the market to work out what suits consumers best. Bureaucrats may suppose they can identify where the future demand will lie, but they are no Steve Jobs.
