Why is the PC penetration so low in India? Do people really need PC or a service that sits between a PC and a TV?
HP India has unveiled DreamScreen, a tabletop product (not necessarily a tablet) product “developed in India, for India” designed to enhance education, deliver news and entertainment, link families, enrich spiritual life and provide access to the web via a touch interface.
The touch-based device will offer content through the Internet like education, video chat, e-mail, movies, news etc and has developed partnerships with the leading regional content and service providers.
“On the content side, a tap on the screen brings up school curricula, streaming video from temples, Bollywood movies and music and local news. On the services side, we realized that Indians spend hours waiting to do things like pay a bill or purchase a train ticket. And we made it easy for bi-lingual families to toggle between English and Hindi. Video calls can be initiated by tapping an onscreen number keypad or touching a photo. Real-time religious services are brought into the home from webcams stationed in faraway temples, bringing spiritual satisfaction to the comfort of the home.”
The company has partnered with operators (Airtel and Tata Teleservices) for providing Internet connectivity, and Apalya, Edurite, India Games, India Today, NDTV and Yatra for services content.
The price of touch-based device, Dreamscreen in India is Rs. 19,999 and the device has 18.5-inch diagonal touchscreen display, a DVD optical drive. The device is expected to be available in India later this month at approximately 700 outlets across 60 cities in the country.
