Stan Schroeder:

In another attempt to bring a usable computer to the masses at an extremely affordable price point, India has developed a touchscreen computing device which will cost only $35. According to a press release by India’s Press Information Bureau, the price is expected to drop even further, first to $20 and ultimately to a mere $10.

This has been all over the news this morning. But I don’t think it really is that great of a ‘deal’.

The mean household income in the U.S. is $60,528 a year. I could not find similar statistics for India, but from the non-factual sources I could find it was pegged around $1,000-2,000 a year. For the sake of argument let’s go with India at $2,500 mean income per household yearly. Let us also use the iPad as the equivalent Tablet in the U.S. at $499 each.

In the U.S. then the iPad represents 0.82% of the mean annual household income – in India this new $35 tablet represents 1.4% of the mean annual household income. That is a huge difference and in a nation as poor as India it is not really affordable. $35 might sound amazing to everyone in the U.S. – but it is still the equivalent of an $843.61 expense for us in the U.S.. Not so cheap now is it?