I like to complain alot. It's a bad habit. One of the things I used to complain about the most was my Dell Latitude. I got it the summer before freshman year and instantly had problems with it. The $2,000 price tag got me a dead battery, a dated Microsoft Office, horrible sound quality, a shaky hard drive that crashed four times, and days of my life wasted on the phone with a distant customer service operator. Three years and an HP Pavilion later, I can finally say I am a happy laptop owner. Now I have other things to complain about, like the ridiculous price of movie tickets and my inability to save money.
That being said, a company in India is on its way to producing something that seems virtually uncomplainable: a laptop that costs less than the price of a movie ticket.
That's correct, the natively titled Sakshat (meaning "before your eyes") computer is one step from fruition, as designers are currently looking for a manufacturer. At this point in time, specs are few and far between, although the laptop will supposedly feature Wi-Fi capabilities and 2GB RAM. Funded by the Indian government, scientists have tagged the production of one Sakshat at a mere $20, with costs expected to be half that as production develops. Such a price drop seems likely based on the consistency of Moore's Law in the digital industry, which essentially states that performance to price doubles every 18 months (i.e. a computer that costs $1000 today will cost $500 in a year and a half). Microsoft is not expected to show its Windows face on the Sakshat however, because the inclusion of XP would add a cost of at least $50 per system, a steep price when compared to the open source Linux. Perhaps Windows is on its way out after all.
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/indian-planning.html
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The price of this laptop is astonishing! It truly shows how inexpensive technology may become in the not-too-distant future. With prices like these, many more people may be able to gain knowledge at a pace only available to those with access to such technology. Other forms of technology may become cheaper as well, which could be frightening in economic times such as these. Although it is nice to know consumers may come to obtain such purchasing power, price declines such as these may only bring more trouble to the world's state, in my opinion.
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