The Hindu Business Line : BEL reworking simputer with low-cost chips

AT Bharat Electronics Ltd's annual news conference last year, the Simputer was the star exhibit that drew enormous interests and requests for demonstrations.

What began as the poor man's 10-K community PC and aspired to become a gizmo freak's palm-held dream made way for the set top box at today's meeting, exactly a year to that date.

The defence electronics major, which is manufacturing and retail marketing the Amida brand of Simputer for PicoPEta Simputers - the inventor company led by IISc scientists - said they were now reworking the design with low-cost chips.

This was an attempt to make the pricing of the three versions more competitive - perhaps to around 80 per cent of the earlier tag. The Amida versions are now priced Rs 9,950; Rs 12,450 and Rs 19,000.

The new Simputer could hit the market in the coming 3-6 months.

The two partners have been in discussions after the sale of 2,500-odd Simputer units fell far short of their market expectations, according to the BEL CMD, Mr Y. Gopala Rao.

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