The idea that everything costs a lot of money has been a constant in the United States for way too long. Only this concept would account for very boring hamburgers costing about $4.00 at today’s fast food restaurants – an amount of money that people in quite a few countries work all day to earn. Hidden costs are built into so many of the items sold in the States and for some reason, America is willing to pay them.
The $4.00 fast food burger price, for example, represents the collective cost of the burger you bought plus the other one (or two) tossed into the garbage because nobody after about 15 minutes of sitting under the heat lamp they are declared inedible. Add to the waste cost franchise fees, national advertising fees, licensing and advertising costs and you can see clearly that you’re not paying much for your burger, but you sure as heck are paying for everything that burger represents in the consumer maketplace.
When it comes to tablet computers, isn’t it interesting to consider what representative costs might be built into their sale price and what it would cost if those representations were absent. In India, they’ve come up with an answer: it’s USD $35.00.
The $35 tablet prototype from India will run a variation of the open source Linux operating system. It has 2Gb of RAM, but no internal storage–relying on a removable memory card . . . a PDF reader, multimedia player, video conferencing, Web browser, and word processor.
For PC purists who already question the value of tablets like the Apple iPad, a $35 tablet must seem like a combination between an optimistic pipedream and an ill-conceived prank. The logic goes like this: It can’t run Windows 7, or any of the Windows-based applications the business world relies on, so it can’t possibly have any useful function.
However, the saving grace for the tablet is the Web browser. With a browser running on a Linux system connected to a wireless network, the other applications become irrelevant. Users can rely on Google Docs or Microsoft Office Web Apps for productivity. Files can be stored in the cloud. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can be accessed. Finances can be managed with Mint.com. Music can be played at the Pandora Web site, or other sites like it.
. . .Ultimately, it doesn’t even really matter if the “$35 PC” ever materializes. The Indian prototype illustrates what’s possible and breaks down barriers–challenging the rest of the industry to push the envelope. A Linux-based (think Android or Chrome OS), Web-connected tablet would likely still be a tremendous success in the United States at three times that $35 target.
Pricing like this challenges our assumption that everyday purchases need to be costly. It’s about time.