It was just about an year ago that we heard about the $35 Android Tablet from India which would revolutionize the education in developing countries. Mr. Kapil Sibal promoted it with utmost fervor until it was found that the BoM itself of the tablet was more than $50 and none of the guys claimed to have “invented” it even knew about its existence until a few days before the announcement. Ultimately, it was discovered that the tablet was just a rebranded chinese import which the government wanted to bring down to $35 price point by subsidizing the cost and not by somehow inventing cheaper parts. What more proof can we get about it’s non existence that it hasn’t materialized after so much of time and even the company that was supposed to be making it according to the government (HCL) has said that it has nothing to do with it.
That was that but it seems like the episode has given a brilliant idea to a few others as well. Import cheap/sub-standard products from China, rebrand them, ask government for subsidy and claim to have “invented” a revolutionary low cost computing device. iWebLeaf is a case in point. I came across them through a couple of articles where this little company formed by a couple of engineering students has invented two ultra low cost products: A 3G data card for 1300 INR (~ $30) and a Laptop for 5000 INR (~ $110). I was pleasantly surprised and my initial reaction was to applaud the effort. Then I noticed that these products, although announced for quite some time and having gotten a LOT of mainstream media coverage on almost every news channel, have not come to the market yet. The reasons for the 3G card are unknown but the laptop was said to have been dropped because of lack of Government support (read “subsidy”).
Disclaimer: Before you read any further, please note that I’m an Indian myself and stay in India only (i.e., not a condescending NRI). I am a developer myself and love innovating and innovators and have the greatest respect for all that our country has given to the world. This piece is a rant against only those few individuals who make the rest of the India look bad by claiming authority over fake innovations.
Being a part of the semiconductor industry for quite some time, I was curious to find out how they achieved this feat which no one else including big name companies have been able to do even after years of research (XO-PC). I looked at the purported specs of the laptop and it struck me that yet again, the BoM itself was much more than 5000 INR. When I raised some questions about this, the “innovators” replied that they are saving all this money because they “developed their own processor DXA16″ which is equivalent to a 1.6GHz Intel Atom. What again raised even more doubts in mind was that they said their processor didn’t have anything to do with Intel and they didn’t even have to take an X86 license even though they claim windows support for the laptop, which means that their processor MUST be x86 compatible. Secondly, they mentioned that they have got jobs in TCS and CTS and won’t continue further. I’m completely flummoxed why an under-graduate student who has designed his own commercially viable micro processor in a college lab during a period when other students struggle to just write 10 line assembly programs, would go and join a mass-recruiting services company. If I was him, any company from Intel to TI to Qualcomm to ARM would be ready to hire me for any salary that I demanded. On top of this, they gave weird reasons to drop it that they want to do it only for Orissa and no other state, etc.
It was also mind-blowing that they made such great inventions but their own website doesn’t have even a single word about these. All they have there is the run of the mill Web-Hosting, SEO, site design, blah blah.
Anyways, another person on the same forum where I raised the doubts uncovered an ugly truth. Their data card is nothing but a rebranded chinese card. See this link: Cheap 3G Data Card.
Points to note:
1. This card has the exact same specs including speeds, features (e.g. same RAM, ROM amounts, sd card etc)
2. It costs around $35 for a single piece including shipping. So, for bulk purchase, you can easily get it much cheaper and sell it around the $30 price.
3. It looks exactly the same with just an iWebLeaf logo slapped over the version sold by these innovators.
Pics:
iWebLeaf Data Card:
Chinese Data Card:
Note: You can also see this video of iWebLeaf Data Card and compare it against the rest of the pics on Deal Extreme site for the chinese card.
Laptop: I was even more skeptical about their laptop now. And I was flabbergasted with surprise when I found out that all it took me was around 2 minutes of search for “cheap chinese laptop” on china trader sites like alibaba/traderkey etc and I stumbled onto a company called Enzo-Tech. If I could do this in 2 minutes, couldn’t the rest of the mainstream media folks do a little bit of fact check with their vast resources? They produce a 10″ Mini Laptop which, just like the data card:
1. Has the exact same specs as the iWebLeaf laptop (except that they list Atom as the processor instead of DXA16, which is a farce anyways)
2. Looks exactly the same with just iWebLeaf stickers pasted all over. (Pics below)
The only concern here is that even this laptop is not available for the low price that iWebLeaf mentioned. This laptop sells for around $200 in small quantities. If bought for very large quantities (e.g. in thousands or 10s of thousands by a government), the price would come down radically and with a little bit more of subsidy, it can achieve the price that iWebLeaf mentioned. But it would still be “cost price”. Sale price to end users will have to be much higher due to customs, logistics, handling, shipping, etc even if they were to sell it on a no-profit basis.
iWebLeaf Laptop:
Enzo-Tech Laptop:
Note: You can also see this video of iWebLeaf Laptop and compare it against the pics/specs on Enzo-Tech’s website and see that it is the same.
What to make of it? I don’t have anything against these guys as entrepreneurs. They have every right to import, rebrand and resell products. A huge number of people and companies do this. What I take offense to, however, is to claim that they invented these things which isn’t true and then blame the Government for not allowing them to prosper by not spending the tax money I pay for their benefits. Moreover, this not only shames other “True” Indian innovators when these fakes are discovered but also sets wrong examples for our budding engineers to choose the shortest path possible to get 15 minutes of fame and then a job instead of really doing something to make the nation proud. I’m also yet again dis-illusioned by our mainstream media who will report anything and everything under the sun just to get more eyeballs and TRP without doing any sort of fact-checks. Yes, YOU SO CALLED TECH JOURNALISTS, I am calling you out.
In the end, I will make my offer to iWebLeaf guys again as I made to them elsewhere. Prove me wrong and I’ll myself heap praises upon you and your products through my blog and all other publications that I influence. Also, I will make sure to hire you in my company with at least 5 times the salary that you are getting in TCS/CTS.
Nice take. That’s why I don’t watch tech related programs on Indian TV
Btw, 3G Data card is not that expensive. IDEA netsetter (Huawei E1550 – HSDPA 3.6 Mbps) goes for listing price of 1450 INR on eBay.in for end users. Combined with coupons / bulk purchase, 1300 INR is definitely possible. But yeah 5000 INR laptop is not
@Bala: Yeah, a 3.6mbps/7.2mbps data card is easily possible in that amount. But these guys didn’t stop there. They started advertising with 7.2mbps but then later changed their tune saying their data card is now equivalent to Qualcomm’s MDM8200 and can provide downlink speeds upto 84mbps. And at the same price. That is bullshit.
Hi, Just read about those two guys in Telecomtalk.info. They seemed like a genuine guys with their interview.
I know the guys are really fake. They should be punished for biasing the media and public. Strict actions should be taken against these frauds.
We are surprised to see some person trying to defame our innovation & comparing that to some cheap Chinese goodies. These allegations made by the person in various blogs & in various forms are completely baseless. The following details will satisfy all sorts of confusions among our media fraternity:
• We have never mentioned that the body & spare parts of neither the laptop nor the data card has been manufactured by us here in India. Those were imported from outside, so there are huge chances the facial outlook (like the keyboard or cabinet of the laptop or datacard) of these products may have the similarity with that available at China as the cabinets are easily available in Kolkata Market. As we don’t have core competence on those plastic designs thus we need to purchase the cover from the vendor. So, just by comparing our products from the aspect of its look is completely baseless.
• In his post, in the first part he has mentioned that the
” Being a part of the semiconductor industry for quite some time, I was curious to find out how they achieved this feat which no one else including big name companies have been able to do even after years of research (XO-PC). I looked at the purported specs of the laptop and it struck me that yet again, the BoM itself was much more than 5000 INR.”
But in the second part of the post he has mentioned that
” This laptop sells for around $200 in small quantities. If bought for very large quantities (e.g. in thousands or 10s of thousands by a government), the price would come down radically and with a little bit more of subsidy, it can achieve the price that iWebLeaf mentioned.”
In the first part he says it is impossible to design a product at this price & later on claims that this type of laptop can be procured at this price tag. Comparing these two statements you all can clearly chalk out that ,this person who is blaming us is completely confused from his own end as well as completely out of sense & his statements are completely contradictory. This type of person has no other work rather than leg-pulling & creating unnecessary controversies through which he thinks he can earn good repo for his so claimed high-end blog.
• Moreover regarding the datacard,we have never released the internal specifications of the datacard & never compared it with any Qualcomm processor.
All we think if he is very happy in spreading fake rumours & misguiding the public & media persons, so be it!!. If we were misguiding people & the public, why no other from this industry took this point into consideration?? Why is it just Him. We suppose somehow his vested interested is hampered in some way or other for which he has been into this kind of conspiracy.
Those who are blaming us please try to do something good for the society rather than wasting time in blaming someone. Hope most of the doubts & confusions are empty in all of your minds.
Even it’s a matter of glad that we are able to get initial patent clearance for our data card project on 4th April 2011 and the person those are biasing the things don’t have any idea over the things; He only prefer to comment. It’s a challenge to him as he is showing he is too tech savvy then why he is not taking some steps to design laptop( with our configuration) and data card (with our feature) at the same price tag.
We know it’s very easy to comment; But the efforts that are behind the scene is very hard to describe.
@iWebLeaf:
1. I don’t have any “vested interests” in defaming you. Why would I have them if you are not bringing the product into the market?
2. The question is not just about plastics. I went to look for those because you couldn’t answer anything about the internals satisfactorily. I have asked you before as well on TelecomTalk and you didn’t have any answers for:
a. Why didn’t you have to take an X86 license from intel to design an X86 compatible processor? Hell, you didn’t even know your processor should be x86 compatible. All you said was your processor doesn’t have to do anything with intel.
b. I asked you for BoM break down. You weren’t able to provide it.
c. Do you have any technical documents for your “DXA16″?
d. Why doesn’t your website have any information about these “innovations”?
3. Again, you are putting words into my mouth. I stand by my statement that it is not possible to sell a INR5000 laptop. I have clearly mentioned that you still need “government subsidy” even after bulk purchase to bring the price down to the said levels. And even then, it will be “cost price”. Sale price to end users would still need to be higher taking into account customs, logistics, handling, shipping, etc even if you were to sell it at a no profit basis.
4. Dude, who are you kidding? You never released any specifications for the data card? You have sent emails to all publications regarding your data card specs. You even sent an “update” email to TelecomTalk that your data card wasn not for just 7.2mbps but it is actually equivalent to Qualcomm’s MDM8200 chip and supports 84mbps
5. All you guys are doing are spreading rumours and empty specs. Where is the proof? All your interviews and everywhere all you have shown is a laptop and a data card working. Where is the proof that you designed the data card chip or the DXA16 processor? Where is the proof that you did it all in the purported price?
6. Glad you brought up the “patent” reference for the data card. So, care to share your patent number? I can easily check it and that will be it. You will be proven true innovators and I’ll take back my words.
7. You must have also applied for a patent for your own processor. Can you give that application number?
8. So, unless, you can back up your empty claims with technically, you should just shut up. The only reason why you got so far is because our media is full of incompetent people who know zilch about technology. So, all you had to do was feed them with “specifications” and they will lap it up. I take offence to this because you are fooling everyone watching and reading those crap news.
9. I’ll give you another offer. I will send you 20, 000 INR and you send me one of your laptops and
data card. I will open them, analyze your own designed components in my lab and will retract all that I have said. (Waiting for another lie and lame excuse from you)
10. Do well in your Job in a real way. No one will tolerate lies for more than a short time there.
Good description for the so called innovation.
Its really required .
Now media should try to ask at least same question to them.
Above iWEBLEAF’s reply don’t have any convincing detail.
Just using words like “confused/out of sense/leg-pulling” doesn’t prove ones point.
good initiative Shantanu.
Hope to see more transparent questions.
I found a video on youtube which they shot for OTV, local Oriya channel i suppose.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g67N0LRrzk
Specially interesting from 3:10 mins onwards where they show a couple of chaps sitting with a desktop motherboard and Phillips screwdriver in front of the laptop, were they trying to show the board component of the laptop ?
They show it running on Vista\Win 7, have they obtained permission from Microsoft to even test the OS ?
And without patent application numbers this is a serious matter …
Why Iwebleaf is silent!
They have to give the explanation!
All these things are not a joke of course.
They are silent means shantanu is correct.
otherwise THEY JUST GIVE THE PATENT APP. NO. HERE.
cheers shantu……………all’re awaiting iwebleaf reply
Shantu gud kick back….applause!!!
Every 1′s waiting for iwebleaf team to answer!!!!!
We have not heard anything after this.
While Tablet manufacturing could be a larger project, 3G router was not so large. Investment required for manufacturing that could have been obtained from any group of individual investors.
It is likely that being in Odhisa they may not have reach to possible individual investors. But if the 3G router project was promising in terms of volumes and margins, it could have been supported if appropriate channel was selected.
As a consumer, even if the 3G router is produced in small quantities and sold at still higher price than 1,300, I am sure many like me will still buy it.
If product is promising, why TCS would take them as normal coders rather than take them to manufacture the product that is already developed by them?
It seems, it was more of publicity rather than a concrete product.
Thanks Shantanu Da these Iwebleaf fool gays meke me fool and waste a lot of time but thanks for ur dedication to cought him red handed .they never come back for explanation because they have nothing to say. Thanks Da.
You forgot one thing, how can they even manufacture their DXA16? They’d need a fab (:D) or at least some sponsorship by some fab owner such as global foundaries/TSMC/Samsung/TI/Qualcomm/Intel. And if they had it then it then the laptop would have been in production long by now
Shantanu is absolutely right in his remarks. He has done his homework well. India Media is filled with half knowledgable people, who create hype, without going into the proper details. This guys iWebLeaf are taking undue advantage of the media & promoting false things. I cant belive that a laptop can be avaiable under Rs 5000. I have been in Computer industry since last 15 years & have never heard such false claims.
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