George and Newton react to the 35 dollar tablet PC!

The specifics are still being reported, but it appears that India has developed a tablet PC that will sell for only $35.00.  You can read some of the details here and here.

The Indian government is still looking for a manufacturer to produce the prototype.

This Tablet PC is aimed at the developing world and is India’s answer to MIT’s One Laptop Per Child program.  OLPC sells laptops to developing nations for only $100.00.

Even though the $35.00 tablet is aimed at developing nations, all this could prove to be a huge step forward in affordable tablet computing.   I’m not sure you could call this an i-Pad killer, but it’s certainly nice to see more competition.

The question is, how can they do it?  How will they possibly be able to produce a tablet computer for only 35 bucks?  It’s a given that  manufacturing and labor  costs are lower in India.  However, one of the key ingredients is found in this quote from the CNN article, “The Linux-based computer is equipped with an Internet browser, a PDF reader and several other facilities, she said.”

Linux!  That’s where a lot of the cost savings is!  Linux is free, open, and available to everyone.  Including a tablet manufacture.  Because Linux is freely given and freely used, any manufacturer can obtain Linux, look under the hood, tailor it to their needs, and implement it on any device.

Google’s Android operating system for  mobile devices is a perfect example of this.

So, if your device(cell phone, Tablet PC, Laptop PC, etc.) runs Linux, that means manufacturers didn’t have to pay a per PC/device licensing fee to Microsoft for Windows.   You get cutting edge technology and a cost savings.

Technology is moving fast. So who knows?  This time next year, you could be reading this blog on a similarly priced device running Linux!