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Manufacturer	Picopeta, Encore
Type	Handheld computer
Connectivity	Infra-Red, USB devices
Retail Availability	2002
Operating System	Linux
Media	Smart card, USB storage devices, accelerometer (only in Amida Simputer)
Input	320x240 px Touchscreen, USB Keyboard
Power	Lithium ion battery
CPU	StrongARM SA-1110 206 MHz
Memory	64 MB
Display	3.8" 320x240 LCD screen (B&W/STN/TFT) displaying Greyscale/4096/65536 Colours
Dimensions	142mm x 72mm x 20mm, 206 gm
Touchpad	Entire screen

The Simputer is a self-contained, handheld computer, designed for use in environments where computing devices such as Personal Computers are deemed inappropriate. Due to the low cost, it was also deemed appropriate to bring computing power to the developing countries.

Contents 1 Design 2 License 3 Licensees 4 Deployments 5 Interfaces 6 Bundled Software 7 Commercial production 8 Success Inhibitors 8.1 "Poor man's computer" 8.2 Lack of support from Government and NGOs 8.3 License cost 8.4 Comparison with PDAs 8.5 Cost of laptops 9 Current Status 10 References 11 See also 12 External links

The device was designed by the Simputer Trust, a non-profit organization formed in November 1999. The word "Simputer" is an acronym for "simple, inexpensive and multilingual people's computer", and is a trademark of the Simputer Trust. It includes text-to-speech software and runs the GNU/Linux operating system. Similar in appearance to the Palm Pilot class of handheld computers, the touch sensitive screen is operated on with a stylus; simple handwriting recognition software is provided by the program Tapatap.

The Simputer specifications are released under an open distribution license called the Simputer General Public License or the SGPL. Free software developers are being actively encouraged to port their applications to the Simputer.

The Simputer Trust has licensed two manufacturers to create devices based on the Simputer specifications:

• PicoPeta Simputers (commercially released as the Amida Simputer)
• Encore Technologies

In the year 2004, Simputers were extensively used by the government of Karnataka to automate the process of land records procurement. Prior to this large scale deployment, Simputers were also used in an ambitious project in Chattisgarh for the purpose of e-education. In 2005 these powerful and flexible devices were used in a variety of innovative and interesting applications, such as automobile engine diagnostics (Mahindra & Mahindra in Mumbai), tracking of iron-ore movement from mine pithead to shipping point (Dempo, Goa), Microcredit (Sanghamitra, Mysore), Electronic Money Transfer between UK and Ghana (XK8 Systems, UK), and others. In recent times, the Simputer has seen deployment by the police force to track traffic offenders and issue traffic tickets.

• Touch panel overlay on liquid-crystal display.
• Speaker and microphone jacks
• Smart-card connector.
• USB connector (to function as host or device)
• Serial port
• Infrared Data Association (IrDA) port
• Colour Thin-film transistor (TFT) display (Monochrome display is no longer available).
• Multi-I/O connector (in Encore's Simputer) giving additional (slave) USB, and optional modem/VGA interfaces

The Simputer uses the Linux operating system (2.4.18 Kernel as of July 2005), and the Alchemy™ Window Manager (only the Amida Simputer). Software packages included provide:

• Scheduling
• Calendar
• Voice Recording and Playback
• Khatha (A simple spreadsheet)
• Internet and network connectivity
• Web browsing and email.
• an e-Library
• Games (in the Amida Simputer), including Chess, Breakout and Golgoli (a game that makes use of the accelerometer in the Amida Simputer).
• J2ME and .GNU (a free software implementation of .NET) are also available
• Encore also has a FLASH player available

In addition, both licensees developed custom vertical applications for microbanking, traffic police, medical applications, etc.

Alchemy user interface used by the Amida Simputer has been released under the GPL with the name "OpenAlchemy".

Pilot production of the Simputer started in September 2002. In 2004, the Amida Simputer became commercially available for Rs. 12450 and up. The prices for Amida Simputer vary depending on the screen type (monochrome or colour).

By 2005, sales of Simputers failed to live up to the ambitious goal of selling 50,000 units: only 4000 Simputers were sold ([1]).

A reason often stated is that the poor have no need of computers before their basic needs (such as electricity) are met. However, the Simputer was never designed to be a "poor man's computer" (a position often used by the media)- it was a device designed to help bridge the digital divide. While most people tended to look at the cost of the Simputer as a factor, they ignored the fact that the "cost of ownership" for the end-user of the device in villages was not the cost of the device, but the cost of the Smart card used to store the user's data. The device itself should be considered shared infrastructure for the village.

Another reason may be that lack of purchasing by the Indian government and NGOs (as earlier committed) led to lack of adoption in the field.

The SGPL, the license under which simputer is marketed, asks for a license fee of 1 Million Indian Rupees (US$1=INR 42 at the time of writing) to commercially exploit the Simputer design. This was perceived to be a high entry point for small scale organizations wishing to license the Simputer design

While the Simputer is not cheap when compared to PDAs available in the market at the time, this point is largely irrelevant, as it was not designed to be a PDA (which are used as PC companions) but as a standalone computer. The comparison with PDAs was a natural outcome because of the form-factor (and to some degree reports by the media), but was factually wrong.

The decrease of prices of laptop computers may have reduced the Simputer's price competitiveness.

Both licensees may seem to have stopped actively marketing their Simputer devices, though both are known to be developing newer devices based on Simputer technologies. Encore still actively markets its Simputer, and is still looking at reasonably large volumes hereonwards. While Encore has developed an XScale-based device for use by the Indian Military, PicoPeta has continued development of an as yet un-released device, and is actively encouraging Free software developers to port their applications to the Simputer platform, and to the Alchemy interface. PicoPeta was acquired by Geodesic Information Systems (a developer of communication and collaboration systems) in 2005.

• "Indian handheld to tackle digital divide". (July 18, 2001).
• Srinivasan, S. (Apr. 3, 2005). "Handheld Computer Yet to Reach the Masses". Associated Press.
• Swami Manohar (Nov. 2005) High Return Computing
• BBC News, 10 September, 2001 Computer deal for India's poor
• Outlook India, September 22, 2002: Pilot production of Simputer begins
• BBC News, 1 August, 2005 - Woe for traffic offenders in Sim city
• Reuters, January 8, 2004 Simputers for Bhutan

• Children's Machine, being developed by Nicholas Negroponte and his One Laptop Per Child non-profit organization.
• Classmate PC, a low cost machine developed by Intel
• Tianhua GX-1C, part of a line of affordable machines developed by Sinomanic in China
• Longmeng or Dragon Dream is a Chinese low-cost computer being designed to cost €100
• OpenBook Project, a project functionally similar to the Children's Machine
• Wizzy Digital Courier: Internet access for rural schools via USB stick
• VIA pc-1 Initiative

• Official website
• PicoPeta Simputers
• PicoPeta's "Amida Simputer"
• OpenAlchemy
• Encore
• Encore's Simputer
• Simputer at the Open Directory Project (suggest site)
• Indian Computer in Guyana - The Simputer's First Day., July 22, 2005
• Recursion: The Simputer And The Wikipedia, July 23, 2005 - Shows a Simputer being used for editing this Wikipedia entry.