[Fsf-friends] COMMENT: Google may not go Simputer way

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

>From HINDUSTAN TIMES
January 5, 2006

GOOGLE MAY NOT GO SIMPUTER WAY

Venkatesh Ganesh
Mumbai, January 4

GOOGLE's ENTRY into the sub-Rs 10,000 PC market has rattled the cage of
existing players. But the search-engine giant's entry into the hardware
sector in India with a thin-client model (a PC with no hard disk and
computing) may not be a walkover.

HT was the first to report on December 15, 2005 about the Google's plans
to enter the Indian market with thin-client model.

Early entrants like the Simputer and other low-cost PCs are being still
viewed skeptically. Globally too, thin-clients have managed to make only
small inroads.

But the real fight is for a different space. Google appears to be
looking to dethrone Microsoft from its desktop throne.

"Thin clients have been viewed in a cautious manner primarily due to the
price factor. But with Google entering the fray at such an attractive
price point, things might change," says Nitin Mukadam, an e-commerce
consultant.

The advantage with thin clients is that the storage happens in a central
server. For example, all data and applications (like word processors,
spreadsheets, etc) are hosted in a central server. This solves a lot of
problems right from storage to viruses.

Also, with bandwidth prices coming down, the commercial viability of a
thin-client device is now more feasible. Then, therere are issues with
regards to Random Access Memory (RAM) that can run with even small
memory space.

Industry analysts opine that Google has a rough road ahead. "Delivering
complete functionality in a thin-client is most challenging," Sameer
Kochhar CEO of Skotch told the Hindustan Times.

Translated, it would imply that since Windows is the pre-dominant
operating system, operating on non-Windows system would take some
getting used to (Google would bundle Linux-based applications).

Sanjeev Sharma, managing director, Fujusan Technologies, an Indian
representative of Fujitsu, the Japanese IT and communication solution
provider, feels that the acceptance of a device of this kind will be
predominantly in the small office-home office.(ENDS)