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| Nigeria's low-cost tablet computer |
| By Thom Holwerda, submitted by MOS6510 on 2012-07-20 19:16:11 |
| "Nigeria's Saheed Adepoju is a young man with big dreams. He is the inventor of the Inye, a tablet computer designed for the African market. According to the 29-year-old entrepreneur, his machine's key selling point is its price - $350 opposed to around $700 for an iPad. He believes that, because of this, there is a big market for it in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa, particularly amongst students. He is also hoping to sell his tablet - which runs on the Google Android operating system - to the Nigerian government and plans to have at least one computer in each local government area." Mobile phones have had a huge impact on Africa, so just imagine what tablets, with their larger screens and easier access to the web, can do. Amazing initiative. |
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| RE[2]: It depends |
| By ricegf on 2012-07-21 15:48:10 |
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Tablets may not fit any of your use cases, but they fit a lot of mine. They make good readers, for example. My company provides both Safari and Books24x7 subscriptions, and I do a lot of technical (and some pleasure) reading on my iPad far more comfortably than on my laptop, netbook, or phone (I've read books on all 3). It's also lighter and more flexible than a paper Bible. Better for work emails and such than a Blackberry (too small) or laptop (too bulky) for my tastes. My dad and I actually set it on the table between our chairs last fall to watch several college football games that weren't on TV. A little small, but far better than the radio. (This is one of the few areas where a 10" has a definite advantage for me over a 7".) I also took notes during general sessions of PyCon 2012 on it, as it's far lighter than my laptop (which I needed for technical sessions, since iPad lacks decent Python support). I've taken notes in other venues as well. And some games just work better with touch than with a mouse, such as the standard Angry Birds (though I play that most often on my N900). I guess a few other people have found similar benefit to tablets, as well, since Android and iOS are now approaching Windows in the overall consumer computing market. Happily, it's not just a Windows world any longer. But if none of these fit you, then viva la difference! :-) |
 - Score: 2 |
| RE[3]: It depends |
| By WereCatf on 2012-07-21 16:41:52 |
|
> They make good readers, for example. My company provides both Safari and Books24x7 subscriptions, and I do a lot of technical (and some pleasure) reading on my iPad far more comfortably than on my laptop, netbook, or phone (I've read books on all 3). It's also lighter and more flexible than a paper Bible. Reading books and comics was one of the primary reasons for why I wanted a tablet; I do prefer real paper over electronic displays, but a 10" tablet simply is SO much more comfortable for reading than a laptop, desktop or a phone that it was a total no-brainer. With electronic reading devices there's the upside compared to paper books that that you can carry your whole collection with you wherever you go. |
| - Score: 4 |
| RE[2]: Uhm... |
| By bassbeast on 2012-07-21 18:38:43 |
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One of my customers had me pick her up one of those 7 inch Cruz tablets and she's quite happy with it. Sure its not HD like the iPad and it isn't gonna set any speed records, but for the basics like web surfing and reading ebooks it does just fine. Does anybody know what the monthly wage is in Nigeria? Because at $350 I have to wonder how many will actually be able to afford that. Hell you can buy Atom dual core netbooks for $100 cheaper than that and those give you full X86 compatibility and 8 hour plus battery life. I just don't see what the selling point is here, at $350 frankly he could have picked one of several COTS models and still made a nice bit of profit. A $350 price point certainly doesn't sound like a reason to go DIY. |
| - Score: 2 |
| Comment by Wafflez |
| By Wafflez on 2012-07-21 18:49:56 |
|
[quote]Saheed Adepoju: I pitched the idea to my parents, who gave me £40,000 to start with[/quote] ..okay |
| - Score: 1 |
| One other feature of the Nigerian tablet... |
| By tomcat on 2012-07-21 20:40:52 |
| … every 10 seconds, it prompts you for your credit card to secure a $10M cash transfer from a bank in Switzerland... ;-) |
| - Score: 2 |
| Is this a scam? |
| By jefro on 2012-07-21 21:24:36 |
| If the apple is a world normal price then anyone there ought to be able to buy a $99 tablet. |
| - Score: 1 |
| Too expensive for the specs |
| By Ultimatebadass on 2012-07-22 11:56:53 |
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There are some pretty "decent" chinsese oem tablets available in the 100-200$ (retail) range with similar specs. They come in a number of "brands" but are basically the same save for the logo. I actually have one of those, a 10" allwinner A10 based (specs here - http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinne... ) tablet with capacitive screen. Bought it on a whim to try my hand at android development. The quality and performance is not bad for the price. Sure it's not as fast as most current multi core tablets or as elegant but it cost me ~170 usd, and you can buy a 7" version of that for just around 120$ where I live. 350$ is way too much IMHO. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: Sceptical but.. |
| By zima on 2012-07-22 14:21:43 |
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> a young entrepreneur is likely to fail in Nigeria's famous corruption, or become part of it He most likely is part of it already, part of the upper class, the aristocracy - nobody who isn't wouldn't have £40,000 just given by parents, after pitching such idea to them. Overall, weird that BBC pitches up something like this... even if that's only the work of some regional office and/or, well, silly season http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magaz... |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[4]: It depends |
| By zima on 2012-07-22 14:31:50 |
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Too bad that e-paper devices, those with their display appearing similar to real paper (newsprint paper, at least), really got quite inexpensive only when ...inexpensive "full" tablets are also showing up. Oh well, they're still nice in their own way, maybe carrying both will work out (still quite convenient, in a shoulder bag; both together still no heavier, no larger that just one medium book) |
| - Score: 2 |
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