OLPC founder offers advice & tech access to Indian $35 tablet project
OLPC are beavering away at their Marvell-based tablet design, but that doesn't mean founder Nicholas Negroponte hasn't time to pen a few suggestions for the Indian government and their $35 tablet. In an open letter, Negroponte offers "full access to all of our technology, cost free" to the Indian team responsible for the low-cost tablet, along with the warning that they should prioritize content creation not, as on the iPad, content consumption.
"India is so big that you risk being satisfied with your internal market. Don't. The world needs your device and leadership. Your tablet is not an "answer" or "competitor" to OLPC's XO laptop. It is a member of a family dedicated to creating peace and prosperity through the transformation of education" Nicholas Negroponte, OLPC
Now, the crueller people in the audience might suggest that OLPC could learn more from the Indian tablet project than vice-versa, what with the XO devices rising costs from the original $100 promise. Still, India has yet to prove it can produce a $35 tablet to budget, even if the reference design it's believed to be based upon comes in at roughly that figure.