Computer Tablet Bid 'Winner' Offers US$81 Per Unit: Thailand

[kruangfaifar]

These tablets should be made in Thailand.

impossible

Not at all there is already plenty of manufacturing of things like hard drives been done here. The government could have required that the winner manufactures them here

[kimamey]

I avoid anything made in China ever since I purchased that authentic (made in China) Aussie boomerang from a souvenir shop in Melbourne, the bloody thing never came back. Buyer beware on Chinese manufactured goods anyone remember the baby formular incident? If they can't get thier food products rights I wouldn't trust thier technology. (my Grandfather is Chinese)

I have a Chinese friend in the UK who flew out to China on Monday and she took a load of powdered baby milk because they don't trust the stuff out there. Having said that a lot of products, particularly electronic that we buy are made in China.

[MaiChai]

The spec is impressive for such a small amount of money, and since Andriod apps are Java the hardware is irrelevant, as long as its fast enough. The problems come with porting Andriod to new hardware. I have some experience of this, and it requires Andriod being finely tuned to the hardware to give a good balance of performance, battery life, wifi stability and overall system stability. Most of the non brand tablets and phones have lousy Andriod builds so I would be surprised if these tablets have good builds. Expect lots of issues!

[MaiChai]

Guess it will be one of these with a new mainboard: http://www.scope.com.cn/en/ProductShow.asp?ID=134

[Head Snake]

When the floods come this year, I see 900,000 propellers in the river .

Edited March 6, 2012 by Head Snake

[thanchart]

I avoid anything made in China ever since I purchased that authentic (made in China) Aussie boomerang from a souvenir shop in Melbourne, the bloody thing never came back. Buyer beware on Chinese manufactured goods anyone remember the baby formular incident? If they can't get thier food products rights I wouldn't trust thier technology. (my Grandfather is Chinese)

Don;t throw the Clean baby out with the Dirty bath water. There are also good chinese manufacturers, and l a ot have set sights on quality. Bu then there are also many low-end ones who manufacture to meet yr price. Its a matter of knowing enough to know what to buy, what goes into the design (the main processor maker often has a reference design that is modified/stripped down into the final product the company makes), and at what price is worth it.

Edited March 6, 2012 by thanchart

[nurofiend]

Hey, don't knock tablets. The seemed to work for Moses.

Not quite. A third of them broke, leaving us with ten commandments.

thank God for that

[thanchart]

Extract from Oringal Article:

Parinya Sirisarakarn, a member of the National Human Rights Commission, questioned the government's plan to buy tablets from China, saying he was worried about product quality and whether the government had already prepared facilities for the use of tablets at schools.

"If your classroom has 50 students, it must have 50 electric outlets," he said.

IMHO, this guy is not qualified to commeht. He obviously have no idea how a tablet works or that it does not have to be plugged into the wall socket during usage.

While I do see some obvious issues and some less obvious problems in this PC Tablet thingy, it is really sad to sere most who made public comments do so from a lack of knowledge and obviously basing on their experences of the good old times of what a computer used to be. Maybe the PC XT ?(my 1st PC)

Edited March 6, 2012 by thanchart

[Jdietz]

He probably has first-hand knowledge of the actual (not advertised) battery life of the thing.

[looping]

May I presume that the govts end game is merely handing these tablets out? Blind leading the blind as per usual. Nothing improves, only for the rich. Incompetence rules.

[FOODLOVER]

Hey, don't knock tablets. The seemed to work for Moses.

Not quite. A third of them broke, leaving us with ten commandments.

thank God for that

But what if they were the "good" commandments like thous shalt not serve warm beer, of thou shalt not covet your neighbors wife but her sisters are faireth gameth! With the top ten being so strict and depressing i am sure god would have added levity so all would finish their day relaxed and cheerful especially after the burning bush arson investigation. Simple example how a faulty tablet can change the history of the world! If only he would have gone with granite instead of the cheaper sand stone things could have been so much different. Imagine.

[volk666]

Battery lives on these things would require them to be charged everyday, fifty kids in every classroom will need fifty electric sockets, no matter how you arrange your extension cords or whatever. Imagine all the wiring that needs to be done, or all the loose wires, or one wall socket feeding fifty devices.

That ScopePad from 2010 was a single core, there was a link to a newer version earlier in this thread, in 2010 they simply didn't have dual core processors on the market.

In terms of warranty they probably produce a few thousand extra tablets for replacement rather than dealing with problems.

Anything about pre-installed software? Any pre-loaded books? Any kind of download management for govt produced apps? And what about demand for Android 3.2 that is unlikely to be met? I doubt they will be able to include even generic Android things like Market, as those need to be licensed by Google.

Do they have a prototype? Has anyone seen it? Or was it only a visit to production lines somewhere in China?

[rubl]

Battery lives on these things would require them to be charged everyday, fifty kids in every classroom will need fifty electric sockets, no matter how you arrange your extension cords or whatever. Imagine all the wiring that needs to be done, or all the loose wires, or one wall socket feeding fifty devices.

That ScopePad from 2010 was a single core, there was a link to a newer version earlier in this thread, in 2010 they simply didn't have dual core processors on the market.

In terms of warranty they probably produce a few thousand extra tablets for replacement rather than dealing with problems.

Anything about pre-installed software? Any pre-loaded books? Any kind of download management for govt produced apps? And what about demand for Android 3.2 that is unlikely to be met? I doubt they will be able to include even generic Android things like Market, as those need to be licensed by Google.

Do they have a prototype? Has anyone seen it? Or was it only a visit to production lines somewhere in China?

All required software (OS + apps) can be pre-installed at the factory. See it as a final QA and acceptance test. Free virus and spyware added as bonus.

Now let me see, schools start around mid of May ? If lots of books for P-1 are no longer printed and most likely lots of kids don't have a tabletPC yet, how interesting classes will be. I commiserate with the poor teachers

[volk666]

Of course OS+apps can be preloaded at the factory, if they exist, that is. So far no one has ever reported that Thailand already has a selection of apps, I only remember reading that they decided to ditch interactivity for now and go for textbooks in digital format. At best they have decided what that format should be, not that they've got actual textbooks that they can send to Chinese for pre-loading.

And the OS - I don't see the way they can get Honeycomb on these tablets in a couple of weeks if Scope had never used it before, and if they are going to start from scratch they should start with Ice Cream Sandwich anyway. ICS source code has been out for months, free to take and apply. In fact I've seen a Chinese 7'' tablet at the local mall today running ICS for some 6000 baht. The menu was in Thai so I couldn't check whether it had single or dual core CPU but otherwise it was close to what Scope is offering, and the bulk price seems to be fair.

Maybe they do have Honeycomb on their tablets already, it's just no one can find any evidence of that, we'll just have to take their word for it.

[nurofiend]

Hey, don't knock tablets. The seemed to work for Moses.

Not quite. A third of them broke, leaving us with ten commandments.

thank God for that

But what if they were the "good" commandments like thous shalt not serve warm beer, of thou shalt not covet your neighbors wife but her sisters are faireth gameth! With the top ten being so strict and depressing i am sure god would have added levity so all would finish their day relaxed and cheerful especially after the burning bush arson investigation. Simple example how a faulty tablet can change the history of the world! If only he would have gone with granite instead of the cheaper sand stone things could have been so much different. Imagine.

i know, but you still have to thank 'God' for that!

[louialive]

Have read through the article but cannot find anything on this:

Have they actually tested any of these tablets in the real world. I know if I was buying this many I would want 20 or so on trial, give them to some children and say do your best to break them (not litteraly) to see how they stand the test of the ones who are going to use them.

I buy IT kit and this is what I do. Company wiull demo kit and say its the best thing on the market and I say if you are so sure let me put it to the test. We will then do our best to find its weak points. Then decide if the cost versus what it can't do is worth it.

It is all well and good going to the shiney factory and being escorted around to be shown what they want you to see.

Hope for the sake of the children that they really have their best interests at heart and have really tested properly.

The other thing is the power. Will the chidlren be taking these things home with them. Will parents be willing to let them charge them at home. The power to the classroom is going to be stretched if the circuit is not big enough to take this extra load, could cause fire etc.

[rubl]

Hey, don't knock tablets. The seemed to work for Moses.

Not quite. A third of them broke, leaving us with ten commandments.

thank God for that

I had to look this up, I'm afraid it's a while a go last I read the bible.

"According to the Bible, there were two sets. The first, inscribed by God, were smashed by Moses when he was enraged by the sight of the Children of Israel worshiping the Golden Calf; and the second, later cut by Moses and rewritten by God."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablets_of_Stone

[nurofiend]

Hey, don't knock tablets. The seemed to work for Moses.

Not quite. A third of them broke, leaving us with ten commandments.

thank God for that

I had to look this up, I'm afraid it's a while a go last I read the bible.

"According to the Bible, there were two sets. The first, inscribed by God, were smashed by Moses when he was enraged by the sight of the Children of Israel worshiping the Golden Calf; and the second, later cut by Moses and rewritten by God."

http://en.wikipedia....ablets_of_Stone

well i've never read the bible nor am i religious

it was just a double entendre.... based on god's omnipotence and divine providence

[rubl]

Not quite. A third of them broke, leaving us with ten commandments.

thank God for that

I had to look this up, I'm afraid it's a while a go last I read the bible.

"According to the Bible, there were two sets. The first, inscribed by God, were smashed by Moses when he was enraged by the sight of the Children of Israel worshiping the Golden Calf; and the second, later cut by Moses and rewritten by God."

http://en.wikipedia....ablets_of_Stone

well i've never read the bible nor am i religious

it was just a double entendre.... based on god's omnipotence and divine providence

Go and sin some more, my son

[sparebox2]

Hey, don't knock tablets. The seemed to work for Moses.

Not quite. A third of them broke, leaving us with ten commandments.

thank God for that

And God was not smart enough to invent the copying machine then? Or thumb drive to store his/her 10 commandment before he give it to Moses?

Looks like Bill Gate with the auto backup MS Word is smarter than God.

[FOODLOVER]

He had a backup

Hey, don't knock tablets. The seemed to work for Moses.

Not quite. A third of them broke, leaving us with ten commandments.

thank God for that

And God was not smart enough to invent the copying machine then? Or thumb drive to store his/her 10 commandment before he give it to Moses?

Looks like Bill Gate with the auto backup MS Word is smarter than God.

Ancient backup.

"According to the Bible, there were two sets. The first, inscribed by God, were smashed by Moses when he was enraged by the sight of the Children of Israelworshiping the Golden Calf; and the second, later cut by Moses and rewritten by God."

From rubls post

Edited March 8, 2012 by FOODLOVER

[sparebox2]

$81 is expensive. They are sold on on the net for less than $70 including WiFi & 3G

http://www.lightinthebox.com/c/computers_213

[Buchholz]

The government is red-faced with embarrassment and has re-opened the bidding process for its 900,000 tablet scheme despite already selecting Shenzhen Scope as the supplier.

This has raised a lot of questions concerning political interference and corruption in the process, but the government denies this and have restarted the process all over again after it was discovered that the supposed $81 per tablet winning bid was fraught with undeclared costs, like transportation, extra product specifications, after sales services, warranty, insurance costs, manufacturing capacity, supplier's credibility and other special offers.

So it's all back to square one.... with the government's promise to have them fully functional in classrooms beginning in elementary school's May opening even more suspect than it already was.

.

[mrtoad]

A nice little earner from someone no doubt. Mor of a gimmick than real solid educational policy, but then PTP don't do substance, unless it involves holding a city to ransom and burning buildings down.

[whybother]

The government is red-faced with embarrassment and has re-opened the bidding process for its 900,000 tablet scheme despite already selecting Shenzhen Scope as the supplier.

This has raised a lot of questions concerning political interference and corruption in the process, but the government denies this and have restarted the process all over again after it was discovered that the supposed $81 per tablet winning bid was fraught with undeclared costs, like transportation, extra product specifications, after sales services, warranty, insurance costs, manufacturing capacity, supplier's credibility and other special offers.

So it's all back to square one.... with the government's promise to have them fully functional in classrooms beginning in elementary school's May opening even more suspect than it already was.

The selection of a winner this time will not be based solely on the price, but will include transportation costs, extra product specifications, after sales services, warranty, insurance costs, manufacturing capacity, supplier's credibility and other special offers, the minister said.

[FOODLOVER]

Motorboats, need i say more.

[slapout]

Just another communication problem between us and them. The conditions for delivery, warrenty, specs, etc are part of the tender documents, any bid that does not follow those critera are disqualified. Guess the need/normal pre tender meeting/discussion were forgotten/deemed unnessary..

Hope the method of payment/letter of credit goes more smoothly, once they figure how to handle a simply process.

[Buchholz]

I'm impressed; a political party actually keeps a pre-election promise.

Actually, they are only keeping 10% or so of their pre-election promise.... which was for 11 million tablets.

And with the latest development... even that measly 10% is being threatened.

.

[rubl]

My niece will go to P1 later in May. This being Bangkok, will she get a 'tablet PC' and if not will all those books she normally speaking would be required to have be printed and available? Will not having a tabletPC offset the costs of buying a uniform and books and whatever?

[Buchholz]

The government is red-faced with embarrassment and has re-opened the bidding process for its 900,000 tablet scheme despite already selecting Shenzhen Scope as the supplier.

This has raised a lot of questions concerning political interference and corruption in the process, but the government denies this and have restarted the process all over again after it was discovered that the supposed $81 per tablet winning bid was fraught with undeclared costs, like transportation, extra product specifications, after sales services, warranty, insurance costs, manufacturing capacity, supplier's credibility and other special offers.

So it's all back to square one.... with the government's promise to have them fully functional in classrooms beginning in elementary school's May opening even more suspect than it already was.

The second try at some sort of bidding has apparently been completed and Shenzhen Scope has won again with a bid that was 100 pennies more than their earlier bid.

The ICT Minister said a panel has selected them at $82 per unit. This price now includes the transportation of the tablets to Thailand from China. Another panel will meet today and if they approve, it will go to the Cabinet next week.

Scope's Scopad SP0712 is the chosen model for the first grade students.

From the company's website:

MainFeatures:

WiFi, strong signal with excellent receiving

Thin&Compact Design

Nor hot for long time.

Additional Specs Here:

http://www.lcdadvert..._8g-174653.html

.

Edited March 14, 2012 by Buchholz