Beat the odds - $100 PC

Are you planning to buy yourself a PC but wanna go easy on those pockets? Then here’s your chance. Go grab the new Nova NetPC introduced by Chennai based company Novatium Solutions. The NetPC was launched this month in New Delhi in tie-ups with the MTNL.

The PC consists of a keyboard, a monitor, mouse and USB ports. It uses a central network server to run software applications and store data. The NetPC works on a technology called “thin client” and is very simple. You will just have to switch it on and it automatically gets connected to the main server. The NetPC does not include local hard disks and no built in softwares. You are provided with 300MB storage from the server and incase you want more storage you’re free to buy it. You get access to the soft wares through the server. The PC supports Operating Softwares such as Microsoft Windows, Linux or Sun Solaris. It supports applications based on voice, streaming video, data and graphics.

The Nova NetPC is supposed to be priced at $100. The Nova NetPC home user package is available for Rs.1, 999 (plus taxes) without the monitor (monitor available at an extra cost of Rs.3000/-) in addition to a monthly subscription starting at Rs.399, including a 30 hour Internet access. Thus the basic cost will come up to Rs.6000 – 7000. May be that’s what you call user friendly.

You could go on and by the NetPC for the reason that it won’t give you a hard blow on your pocket and that itself is the best part of it. Technology like NetPC has made computers affordable for people who don’t have much money to spend. Apart from this the other positive elements of the NetPC could be that it uses a totally new hardware design that lowers the cost of acquisition and it also uses less electricity compared to the other desktop computers.

Talking about the darker side the data security is the matter to worry about. Unless the company guarantees full data security the users are not out of risk. The problem also lies in the internet connection where a country like India has great problem in connectivity, specially the rural areas. And though the PC is available in $100 the user will still have to pay the internet charges every month if not he would have to allow dust to settle on his PC.

The concept of Thin Client too is not very new because there are already such company who have thought of the concept like the Enjay Network Solutions who have introduced the Enjay ThinClient Version 2L, Enjay ThinClient Version 2ica. We also have a French company who started MINITEL. But we still never knew how great The Nova NetPC will prove to be. It’s time to see how successfully it runs in the market. And for implementing a rare concept… cheers to Novatium Solutions.