The Simputer Trust does not intend to manufacture the device, only license its design. It plans to charge US$25,000 to commercial producers in developing countries and US$250,000 to manufacturers in developed nations.
"This is a world-class product, ahead of anything being done anywhere else in the world," said Kenneth Keniston, director of the India Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Simputer is not, however, the only cheap computer out there.
In Brazil, computer scientists at Federal University of Minas Gerais have developed a prototype of a PC for the people -- dubbed the Volkscomputer -- which they envision will sell for US$300.
But it's not portable, making it more difficult to share among communities.
The Simputer's developers scrounged for grants and credit the university for giving them lab space and research and development time.
And they don't pretend they don't hope to get rich off the Simputer one day.
The men who built the handheld put in much of their own time and money, and the four computer scientists at the Indian Institute of Science, considered the MIT of the East, earn some US640 monthly and have put most of their other research on hold.
"Not to mention that we haven't seen our families," said V. Vinay, one of the professors. "We're not looking at the retail market, but we're not going to ignore it either."
Deshpande, the software and marketing man of Simputer, agrees: "We hope to make money in the long run."
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