Silicon Valley startup beats out low-cost laptop concept for 50,000-PC contract

[dhilipkumar]

Silicon Valley startup beats out low-cost laptop concept for 50,000-PC contract in India

A Silicon Valley company is claiming a major victory in its efforts to sell computers to schools that might otherwise be enticed by low-cost laptops such as the green-and-white XO from One Laptop Per Child or Intel Corp.'s Classmate PC.

NComputing Inc. said Monday it would be providing computers in 5,000 schools in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Because of the particulars of NComputing's system, the company says 1.8 million students will have access to the machines to learn computing skills and productivity software.

Redwood City, Calif.-based NComputing Inc. uses a technology more common to server farms than rural schools to slash the cost of operating PCs. It's called virtualization — a layer of software that lets many "virtual" computers run simultaneously on the power of a single souped-up desktop.

In Andhra Pradesh, the government will install 10,000 computers and turn each into five virtual PCs. Each of those virtual NComputing workstations operates just like a standalone PC, except that the mouse, keyboard and monitor are hooked up to a small black box. That box, in turn, is connected with a cable to a hub PC.

NComputing says its system has yielded more than a million "seats" in schools and other organizations in less than two years, for as little as $70 per seat. One Laptop Per Child has said it has taken about 621,000 orders for its ballyhooed $188 computers, which have made their way to such developing countries as Peru, Uruguay, Mongolia, Rwanda, Haiti and Afghanistan.

NComputing says its success in Andhra Pradesh and other emerging markets calls the One Laptop Per Child model into question. In an interview, Stephen Dukker, NComputing's chief executive, called the XO laptops "limited" because they are built for kids' computing needs.

In comparison, NComputing's solution works on mainstream computers and can keep up as technology improves, using local technicians for support, Dukker said.