BANGALORE, INDIA: One-laptop-per-child (OLPC), Rs..10,000 PC and the recent IIT Madras and IISc Bangalore initiated $100 PC, all these have a common objective in sight, lower the price of personal computers (PC) and make them affordable to the majority lot; even to those at the remotest corners of the country and belonging to low-income group of the society.

High price of PCs is touted to be one of the reasons behind low Internet penetration in India.  A mere 7 percent sounds too low for a country that is one of the largest IT markets in the world!

The global recession on the other hand, only inadvertently hit a blow to the Indian government’s dream to achieve the target of 20 million broadband Internet users by 2010. The dream only got a bit harder, as many put off their plans to buy PCs until the market stabilizes. (Manufacturer's Association for Information Technology (MAIT) says that personal computer sales dipped 19 percent in Q3 of 2008-09).

Unlike mobile phones and DTH services, which are today playing a major role in pushing Internet into rural areas, personal computer have to go a long way to be able to address this issue. So, now, especially in this recession stricken environment, will the Indian Government’s dream go into dusts?

Televison enters into the frame
Television had long before let go the tag of luxury, becoming an integral part of Indian lives today. With 80 percent penetration into the Indian households, it didn’t take much time to drive the idea of making it a medium to reach out to a mass audience, i.e by bringing Internet right into this idiot box. 

Interactive TV or triple-play-service (i.e., television IPTV, telephone; VoIP and web; Internet with video-on-demand (VoD)) comes into the picture at this juncture. Though many, both state as well as privately-owned, telecos forayed into this space a couple of years back, then, however, it was more of single play service as it had many hiccups regarding bandwidth and price.

India hopes to address these issues in the coming times with the new under-sea cables. On a positive note, earlier this year, couple of large telecos launched IPTV services in India. On the other hand, though VoIP service scenario in India is still hanging in uncertainty, it won’t take much long for the red tapes to be cleared.

Taking into account the pace with which mobile telephony and broadband grew in India, in this age of consolidation, triple-play service will also see a boom in no time. In the last couple of months many forayed into this space and many more are bucking up to launch set-top-boxes (STB) that could enable this service.

The latest to join the fray is IChip Technologies, a Hyderabad-based technology company, (later acquired by Techfarm Ventures, a US-based incubator), who launched a device, @Box. Let’s hear it from Kota Bhaskar, CTO & president, IChip Technologies, who talks at length about their new product.

PC replacer at $100
@Box, an entertainment device with integrated keyboard (wireless optional), mouse, and joystick interface, is a STB that can be plugged into any low cost CRT TV, VGA monitor, LCP monitor or high definition LCD/ plasma TV, projector etc.

Bhaskar calls @Box, a PC replacer at $100. (It will be offered at a subsidized rate of Rs.. 2,500 in the rural areas). He denies to comment on the multi-national chip maker, however, says that the device runs on open source software with Linux operating system.