Everything about The Simputer totally explained
The
Simputer is a self-contained,
open hardware handheld computer, designed for use in environments where computing devices such as
personal computers are deemed inappropriate. Due to the low cost, it was also deemed appropriate to bring computing power to the
developing countries.
Design
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 includes text-to-speech
software and runs the
GNU/
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.
License
The Simputer specifications are released under an open distribution
license called the
Simputer General Public License or the SGPL.
Free software developers are being actively encouraged to port their applications to the Simputer.
Licensees
The Simputer Trust has licensed two manufacturers to create devices based on the Simputer specifications:
Deployments
In the year 2004, Simputers were extensively used by the government of
Karnataka to automate the process of land records procurement. Prior to this large scale deployment, Simputers were also used in an ambitious project in
Chattisgarh for the purpose of e-education. In 2005 they were used in a variety of innovative and interesting applications, such as
automobile engine diagnostics (Mahindra & Mahindra in
Mumbai), tracking of iron-ore movement from
mine pithead to shipping point (
Dempo,
Goa),
Microcredit (Sanghamitra,
Mysore), Electronic Money Transfer between
UK and
Ghana (XK8 Systems, UK), and others. In recent times, the Simputer has seen deployment by the police force to track traffic offenders and issue traffic tickets.
Interfaces
Touch panel overlay on liquid-crystal display.
Speaker and microphone jacks
Smart-card connector.
USB connector (to function as host or device)
Serial port
Infrared Data Association (IrDA) port
Greyscale/Super-twisted nematic display (STN)/Thin-film transistor (TFT) (depends on model and manufacturer).
Multi-I/O connector (in Encore's Simputer) giving additional (slave) USB, and optional modem/VGA interfaces
Bundled Software
The Simputer uses the Linux operating system (2.4.18 Kernel as of July 2005), and the Alchemy Window Manager (only the Amida Simputer). Software packages included provide:
Scheduling (Amida Simputer only)
Calendar (Amida Simputer only)
Voice Recording and Playback (High quality compression on Amida Simputer only)
Khatha (A simple spreadsheet) (Amida Simputer only)
Internet and network connectivity
Web browsing and email.
an e-Library (Amida Simputer only)
Games (in the Amida Simputer), including Chess, Breakout and Golgoli (a game that makes use of the accelerometer in the Amida Simputer).
J2ME and DotGNU (a free software implementation of .NET) are also available
Encore also has a FLASH player available
In addition, both licensees developed custom vertical applications for microbanking, traffic police, medical applications, etc.
Alchemy user interface used by the Amida Simputer has been released under the GPL with the name "OpenAlchemy".
Commercial production
Pilot production of the Simputer started in September 2002. In 2004, the Amida Simputer became commercially available for Rs. 12450 and up. The prices for Amida Simputer vary depending on the screen type (monochrome or colour).
Success Inhibitors
By 2005, sales of Simputers failed to live up to the ambitious goal of selling 50,000 units: only 4000 Simputers were sold ((External Link)).
"Poor man's computer"
A reason often stated is that the poor have no need of computers before their basic needs (such as electricity) are met. However, the Simputer was never designed to be a "poor man's computer" (a position often used by the media)- it was a device designed to help bridge the digital divide. While most people tended to look at the cost of the Simputer as a factor, they ignored the fact that the "cost of ownership" for the end-user of the device in villages wasn't the cost of the device, but the cost of the Smart card used to store the user's data. The device itself should be considered shared infrastructure for the village.
Lack of support from Government and NGOs
Another reason may be that lack of purchasing by the Indian government and NGOs (as earlier committed) led to lack of adoption in the field.
License cost
The SGPL, the license under which simputer is marketed, asks for a license fee of 1 Million Indian Rupees (US$1=INR 39[ason 14th Feb. 2008]) to commercially exploit the Simputer design. This was perceived to be a high entry point for small scale organizations wishing to license the Simputer design
Comparison with PDAs
While the Simputer isn't cheap when compared to PDAs available in the market at the time, this point is largely irrelevant, as it wasn't designed to be a PDA (which are used as PC companions) but as a standalone computer. The comparison with PDAs was a natural outcome because of the form-factor (and to some degree reports by the media).
Cost of laptops
The decrease of prices of laptop computers may have reduced the Simputer's price competitiveness.
Current Status
Both licensees may seem to have stopped actively marketing their Simputer devices, though both are known to be developing newer devices based on Simputer technologies. While Encore has developed an XScale-based device for use by the Indian Military, PicoPeta has continued development of an as yet un-released device, and is actively encouraging Free software developers to port their applications to the Simputer platform, and to the Alchemy interface. PicoPeta was acquired by Geodesic Information Systems (a developer of communication and collaboration systems) in 2005.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Simputer'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://simputer.totallyexplained.com">Simputer Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
