For Rs6,000, a personal computer for the masses

Even as PC makers are dropping prices in a bid to expand their market share, a Hyderabad-based company has come up with a much cheaper alternative to a personal computer.

Designed to fit into a palm-sized box, the home computer comes with a keyboard and a mouse to be connected to a TV. Priced at Rs 6,000, the computer is being targeted at homes and educational institutions to begin with.

“We have extensively studied the PC usage. In most cases, the PCs are overpowered and underutilised. Particularly in a home environment where affordability is a question we saw the scope for a home computer and not for a personal computer,” K A Padmanabham, managing director of elLoka Techsolutions that brought out the product, told DNA.

The company’s team has been working on developing an ultra-low-cost computing platform for over two years now and has developed its own operating system — Home OS. The OS sitting on the in-house designed electronics comes in a palm-sized box with four USB ports and other ports for connecting a mouse and a keyboard.

“We have avoided a monitor and the conventional central processing unit, too. A user can connect this tiny box to a TV. Still, he can use applications like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. The system also supports an internet browser and is capable of playing audio and video files,” he said. An internet user can connect the net cable to the box and start browsing.

However, the company has not provided much storage. The box comes with a 25 MB space and any additional storage has to be added to the system only through external devices via the USB.

The company has developed the processor along with Texas Instruments (TI). “TI has a processor for mobile phones. We worked on that processor and developed it for the home computer,” he said.

Currently, elLoka is in the process of tying up with internet service providers for bundling the box with their services. It is also talking to schools for supplying the gadget along with content for classes 3 to 10. Under a pilot project, the company has tied up with Beam Telecom in Hyderabad for marketing the device to existing internet users.

“The objective is to take it beyond a PC. Even the existing internet users will be able to connect it to their TV sets either for VoIP or video chat. Beam is also planning to take it to new customers, who do not have a PC at home. Since most of the households have TV sets, we are hopeful of finding a large market for the device,” Padmanabham said.

elLoka is planning to roll out 10 lakh computers, which would be manufactured at its Hyderabad facility, this financial year.

“We are talking to partners in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Africa and some Latin American countries. We are in talks with BSNL in India too for taking the product to masses,” he said.

The company is currently scouting for investors and plans to raise $10 million to meet the capex needs. “Some venture capital companies are talking to us. We are still not decided on the investor,” he said.