Thailand Buys Chinese Tablet Computers For Schools

[HalibutJones]

Why's everyone so concerned with the Chinese being able to produce the goods in the time frame? Is it not beyond the realms of possibility that there already are millions of these units lying around ready to ship? Or are things hand made to order these days in that bastion of quality known as the Chinese tech market?

[Sayonarax]

400,000 tablets in 60 days.

If they work 24 hours a day that is close to 300 per hour.

Hats off if they can make that target.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

They have more chance of platting fog than meeting that deadline. I am sure the price was 79 USD before. Now it is 82 USD? What about the other 8 or 9 million kids?

As an earlier poster said -"they kept their promise" apart from the other 8 million ???? These first few will go to hi So schools, who have electric and internet-and charge up outlets and teachers familiar, with a Chinese parts and repair centre nearby. Ha Ha Ha Ha

Whats a Hi-So schools got to do with Thai government schools? At least the hi-so actually pay people to teach their children.

[ginjag]

There has never been any doubt about this order, it has flowed so smoothly, deadlines never missed 9 million order never changed price -never changed-guarantees not altered, repair and maintenance available, delivery dates on time, rake off agreed ??

[PattayaPhom]

it matters not one jot about the teaching materials, the timescales, the quality etc.etc. All that matters is that PTP have kept their promise, the details of the promise are unimportant, because the politicos can blame that on someone else.

Having 3 kids at school and following this its nice to see at least one positive comment...

[Skywalker69]

Are they going to order new pads for the new students next year, and the year after etc.?

[letitbe]

The secondhand/black market for tablets will be flooded. I sense a bargain coming up assuming they do actually work.

they wont be allowed out of classroom Because then everyone will see what crap they are

[alanferdi]

Cheap talk ends always more costly!

Lets look at the evolution of words;

Ipads turn to Tabletts

Every Student suddeny becomes a number.

2 minutes to impress and over 365 days to make a substitute.

[TomTao]

I remember an acronym that was used often in my time in the Australian military, WOFTAM, how long before they will need to be replaced because the built in memory won't be enough to hold all the learning material and the games. How many kids will become expert gamers while failing in every subject.

Edited May 10, 2012 by TomTao

[PattayaPhom]

I'd like to know where the tablets are going, are they for the hi-so kids in Bkk or the rural village kids?

I think the 'hi-so" kids would laugh at cheap tablets from China. Pretty sure they all have ipads or Galaxy eh?

I'm not sure you understood my question. I do not wonder if the Bkk kids will like the tablets, I wonder who's getting them.

I understood it mate. What does it matter who gets them? Unless they change the way/what they teach here in Thailand i don't see a tablet helping any student. I also think real hi-so kids are in private schools so wouldn't be in the mix for a free tablet.

Agree with another poster here that we will most likely see these things sold off, on the black market and so on. A gimmick from the start that will now turn into a joke. The money could be better spent educating teachers how to teach.

Do you have kids..or any first hand knowledge of teaching experience in Thailand..forget the sexpat English teachers.. Thai teachers teaching Thai curriculum?

[PattayaPhom]

Sometimes people just cant win when they are against know it all negheads

[ginjag]

Pattayapom #34, positive comment. ??? all this money, 12% only of the promise, doesn't matter ??? <deleted>---are you talking about, when money is hard come by, people on the breadline, no pre plan for schools, and all you can say is a positive comment--and the other poster who said it's good they stick to their promise, they havent 400,000 ????????? JOKE ??? and your comments.

[gand]

Walmart online, $79.00 Ematic eGlide EGLIDE2BL 7" 1GHz 4GB Android 2.2 OS Black

[animatic]

"BANGKOK, May 10 – Thailand’s Ministry of Information and Communication Technology...

... 1.2 GHz CPU, 1 GHZ ram, 3,600 mAh battery and GPS. "

1 gigahertz RAM... ???

huh, how about 1 giga byte of RAM memory.

Seems AFP has got the specs corrected versus MCOTS.

A lot of 1st graders will be needing that GPS Global Positioning System.

To locate where thay are sitting in class? total waste.

[DrTuner]

A waste of money. How many will be broken or clogged up with BullSH** computer games after a week?

Most likely the ones that are not broken within a week from careless handling will be fitted with a custom android firmware filled with games, a small business opportunity there. Something for the kids to do while being bored to death in school. I truly doubt the government will be able to produce any meaningful educational software, much less the teachers bothering to learn how to use one. Oh well, at least the kids get toys.

[Buchholz]

400,000 tablets in 60 days.

If they work 24 hours a day that is close to 300 per hour.

Hats off if they can make that target.

6,666 tablets per day.

In just the past 15 days, we're supposed to believe that Shenzhen Scope has increased their production capability by a factor greater than 6.

Tablets 'could take nearly 3 years'

BANGKOK: -- Thai students will likely have to wait longer than expected for their promised computer tablets, as the China-based provider can only produce around 1,000 per day

Edited May 10, 2012 by Buchholz

[gand]

"Low-Cost Indian Tablet Project Falls To Corruption" linux.slashdot

"The first Aakash tablet proposed for India schools has failed. Datawind managed to deliver the $45 Android tablet as reported here previously, but suffering a breach in faith by both their contract manufacturer and the accepting agency in India had to put the project on hold. Facing a loss in revenue it's turning into a disaster for the small Canadian company as they are now proving unable to deliver both the Aakash tablet and the parallel retail product. Senior executives have begun to flee. The company has presold a great many tablets, and delivery failure reports are beginning to mount. Is this the Phantom console of this decade?"

[h90]

400,000 tablets in 60 days.

If they work 24 hours a day that is close to 300 per hour.

Hats off if they can make that target.

6,666 tablets per day.

In just the past 15 days, we're supposed to believe that Shenzhen Scope has increased their production capability by a factor greater than 6.

Tablets 'could take nearly 3 years'

BANGKOK: -- Thai students will likely have to wait longer than expected for their promised computer tablets, as the China-based provider can only produce around 1,000 per day

http://www.thaivisa....e/#entry5247621

Maybe they just buy tablets at other factories. There are a lot factories in Shenzhen which make tablets. If 10 different kind of brands arrive: Who cares if the tea money is paid.

[AZBill]

The boxes they come in will have more functionality and will last longer than the tablets!

[ginjag]

Pattayapom, who falls into the neghead People DO NOT have to be "proper" teachers to see that this is a vast expense, for a no go promise. 99 per cent of posters are NOT negheads and anyone that thinks about how and what to spend money on, doe's NOT purchase these.

To sum up, question, would you go to your bank draw out this sort of money, and order from China ??? if so a person doing this is a neghead.

[rubl]

- signed a contract with the Shenzhen Scope Scientific Development

- 400,000 tablet computers to be delivered by a Chinese supplier in 60 day (before 10th of July)

- Repeat purchase orders will be made later for up to 1 million additional tablets. The remainder of the orders will be sent to Thailand within 90 days

- 1.2 GHz CPU, 1 GHZ ram, 3,600 mAh battery and GPS (Android version ???)

- 400,000 tablet PCs worth altogether 32.8 million US dollars (THB 1 billion out of 2.3 billion budget)

Older topics on this:

2012-04-20

http://www.thaivisa....d/#entry5233945

2012-04-24

http://www.thaivisa....s/#entry5244691

2012-04-25

http://www.thaivisa....e/#entry5247621

Sorry, I'm too lazy to point out disrepancies, must leave some for you lot to do :-)

[rubl]

2012-03-06

"The tablet PCs specifications set by the government include a seven-inch touch screen, 16-gigabyte memory, and dual-core CPU. The tablets must also operate under the Android 3.2 Honeycomb system."

http://www.chinadail...nt_14765346.htm

"The tablet's specifications are a seven-inch touch screen, a main storage unit of 16GB, 1GHz dual core CPU or higher, 512MB RAM or higher and an Android 3.2 operating system compatible with Android 4.0."

http://eng.eduzones....2012/03/06/742/

[pipo1000]

Strange,the OP is already 4 hours old and there isn't an update yet which points out the reasons for a delay............Maybe tomorrow

[phl]

why do you guys think chinese will even be making anything new.

no doubt they already have warehouse full of outdated hardware, which will be repackaged and send to Thailand.

its not like anyone is going to check(and if they do(little tea money and all is ok) not to mention how many actually know how to use one to check the specs etc

[Buchholz]

400,000 tablets in 60 days.

If they work 24 hours a day that is close to 300 per hour.

Hats off if they can make that target.

6,666 tablets per day.

In just the past 15 days, we're supposed to believe that Shenzhen Scope has increased their production capability by a factor greater than 6.

Tablets 'could take nearly 3 years'

BANGKOK: -- Thai students will likely have to wait longer than expected for their promised computer tablets, as the China-based provider can only produce around 1,000 per day

http://www.thaivisa....e/#entry5247621

Well now, Shenzhen Scope is now claiming production capacity has increased by a factor of 20 since just 15 days ago.

Amazing China.

Liu Jun, Chairman of Scope, said the company can produce more than 20,000 tablets per day.

"I'm certain that our company can deliver the tablets in time."

China Daily - May 10, 2012

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2012-05/10/content_15261641.htm

.

[tvaddict]

May be I shouldn't be but I am a bit surprised how quick people are to criticise most things Thai here. There's an assumption that if it doesn't appear in a newspaper article then it probably hasn't been considered by those making decisions. Half the time it could just be bad / vague reporting.

The Thai news networks have more detail and have explained, as you would expect there is more thought/ planning/ training, etc than the English newspapers tell us.

For example- there is software that has already been developed for these- 8 e-books for 8 main subjects already and waiting, there is only 8 Mb of memory and the e-books already use up 4 - the other 4 are for students to upload. There is a word processing program and a learning game programme as well as past papers of relevant exams also ready to be pre-loaded. Some other stuff too but it gives you the idea that there has been some thought gone into this. Think of all those paper based text books that won't need to be printed each year- saving money and hassle to carry about!

Sometimes, it wouldn't hurt to just give Thailand the benefit of the doubt before jumping on the moaning band wagon. We all know there's a lot to sort out here but there are a lot of Thais doing their best to make their country good. It will be a long road but one every country had to travel at some point in it's development!

I wish them luck.

[Buchholz]

The government has displayed all sorts of tablets in promoting their scheme from Samsung to Lenovo, none of which were the actual tablets being procured.

Perhaps now, this time, for the first time, the tablets in the ICT Minister's hands are the real McCoys of what the kids will receive...

The Nation - May 10, 2012

.

[surangw]

400,000 tablets in 60 days.

If they work 24 hours a day that is close to 300 per hour.

Hats off if they can make that target.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

pre arranged long ago, just waiting for the payoffs

[surangw]

Once the model is known, it would be interesting to see what the actually sell for ( like on ebay)

[ginjag]

I wish I had your confidence Having just commented on the 300 being sent to Kenya, we will wait and see what happens, but you really are in a minority of thinkers/believing in this notebook purchase. can Thai afford to spend on iffy projects, before you get the high speed engine you have to lay the tracks-so to speak. As I said before would you personally spend this money if it was your decision ????

[Siripon]

Suchart will be happy to leave the Ministry of Education,look at the expression on his face the day he departs.