Computer Tablet Bidding: No Huawei In Final Round

[webfact]

TABLET BIDDING

Anudith: No Huawei in final round

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The government will make a "final" decision today on which company gets to supply tablet computers to school students nationwide, following confusion over a remark made initially by the information and communications technology minister indicating that one firm had won the bid.

The final decision will not include Huawei Technologies as one of the contenders.

ICT Minister Anudith Nakornthap claimed yesterday that he had never intimated that Shenzhen Scope Scientific Development had won the bidding. He insisted that he only pointed the company out because it was offering the lowest price compared to other firms.

However, upon a review of a reporter's recording of the interview, it appeared as if Anudith was indeed indicating that the bidding had been concluded after Shenzhen Scope Scientific Development received "the highest score". He did not say then that another round of bidding would be required, and virtually all newspapers published reports confirming Shenzhen Scope Scientific Development as the winner.

Anudith said yesterday that the computers-for-children policy committee chaired by Education Minister Suchart Tadathamrongvej would make a decision today after considering final offers from Shenzhen Scope Scientific Development and two other firms. Anudith is also a member of the committee.

The government plans to acquire 900,000 tablets for schoolchildren to fulfil an

election promise. The apparent flip-flopping in relation to the bidding will certainly raise suspicions of political interference. The other firms involved in the final decision are TCL Corporation and Haier Information Technology.

The ICT minister confirmed that Huawei Technologies, which was the subject of speculation recently, has been counted out of the final bidding. Besides, Anudith said, Huawei's offered price was already too high.

In fact, he said, Huawei did not even participate in the previous round of bidding, in which Scope was declared as "scoring the highest points", while TCL Corp and Haier Information Technology tied with the same points.

Scope offered the lowest price at US$81 (Bt2,481) per tablet, while Huawei offered the tablets for $135 apiece.

"We are not annulling the bidding," Anudith said yesterday. "It was never finalised in the first place."

Apart from pricing, the decision-making committee will today consider production readiness, delivery and after-sale services. Specs will also come into play, sources told The Nation.

-- The Nation 2012-03-14

[whybother]

According to the Bangkok Post, Scope has been picked again ... this time for $82 a piece.

[tragickingdom]

If Sanan as bookie can become a minister of public health without an education under Abhisit and is able to make millions out of a 2 that piece of textile during the bird flu scare, tens of millions will be paid to the education minister and people like the drunken Vice PM. Even in the West politicians and people in a purchase department are on the take, so it will be certainly the case here.

[volk666]

The other paper quoted the specs, but who knows, with the minister flip-flopping every time he gets to a microphone you can't trust anything.

New specs drop the dual core CPU for a single core one but increase clock speed from 1 to 1.2 GHz, and the OS is upgraded from 3.2 Honeycomb (that was surely bullshit) to Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, which makes sense.

They even mentioned the model name - Scopad SP0712, lots of search results for it, all in broken English. I guess they'll strip that model of cameras and bluetooth.

http://www.lcdadvertising-displays.com/china-scopad_sp0712_7_inch_tablet_pc_with_built_in_3g_android2_3_capacitive_screen_1_2ghz_cpu_512mb_ram_8g-174653.html

Interestingly, they don't mention support for Thai language in their "OSD translate by English" section, whatever that means.

Maybe the goal is to put tablets into children hands, all other benefits, like learning this and that, are implied at your own risk.

[khaowong1]

Yeah, there seems to be no mention of teaching the children how to use these things. However, if they really want to teach the chTildren, bring over from the US or Great Britain a handful of 7 or 8 year olds, they know more about these tablets than anybody I know. They will have these Thai kids rockin in about a week.

[Soutpeel]

One of the other two companies must have topped the tea money on the table from Shenzhen Scope Scientific Development, hence a quick about face at the 11th hour

Edited March 14, 2012 by Soutpeel

[RickBradford]

Probably a good idea they pulled out, given what has happened...

[animatic]

More open mouth insert foot governance.

>But they are so much like us we can drink laokaw with them!

Lets vote for them! <

Naw, that's how USA got Bush the lesser.

[Gerryasia]

This whole idea is shameful and "pandering" to the tenth degree. These kids need tablets like they need more candy. How about a little bit better schooling for all that cash?

Credit cards for farmers and Taxi drivers, sheesh.

Right off of Govt debt to a "ghost machine" national bank that just shifts the ultimate blame for mishandling?

And I'm not even getting started.

This Govt is an absolute JOKE!

Except nobody is laughing....