PicoPeta and the Simputer

1
PicoPeta and the Simputer

• Omar Bakr
• Gabriel Eirea
• Rodrigo Fonseca
• Francisco Gracia

2
Outline

• Introduction
• Course Concepts
• Market research
• Licensing
• Standards
• Strategy
• Conclusion

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What is the Simputer?

• Simple, Inexpensive, Multilingual Computer
• Born and raised in Bangalore
• Intended to bridge the digital divide
• Potential market of 4 billion (2/3 of world
  population)
• Innovative concepts
• Shared model
• Multilingual
• Targeted to illiterates
• Open Hardware Software

4
PicoPeta Timeline
Projected start of sales
Actual start of sales
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
1998
1999
PicoPeta founded
Initial idea for Simputer
Simputer Trust formed (August)
Amida announced

• Only 2500 Amidas sold
• Bel to redesign

• Development Kits available
• Manufacturing Aliance with BEL

Amida launched, 50,000 proj 1 year
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Value chain
6
Market research

• PHASE I identification of barriers for existing
  products
• PHASE II beta testing on real users
• PHASE III mass production and comercialization

7
Market research conclusions

• Let customers decide
• Decision makers
• Not unmet needs, but needs they are willing to
  pay for
• Users
• Not perceived needs, but real needs
• Without pressure/bias
• Lead user methodology not applicable
• Targeted to highly skilled people
• Capable of understanding the principles of Lead
  User research

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Licensing

• Hardware Open design and Architecture
• Third parties required to pay a one time fee to
  access the design documents
• Software Free Software licensing based on Linux
  and GPL
• The license not only applies to infrastructure
  software, but also requires applications to be
  free too!!

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Standards

• Simputer design uses mature technologies,
  benefiting from industry standards
• StrongARM, FlashRAM, USB, SmartCard
• Linux

• Simputer platform as an open standard could never
  move out of the "Proprietary" stage
• PicoPeta was not able to "Influence" the market
  and achieve large volume

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Strategy

• Picopeta 2001 to today Simputer-centric
  solution provider
• Simple, Inexpensive, Multilingual for the common
  man
• Focus on institutional/group projects
• Did not convince decision makers
• Amida 2004
• Launched as global brand, to everyone
• Powerful, Portable, Simple
• 2005
• Still didnt sell

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Time to Market
Handhelds
Perfomance
Simputer
MIT 100 PC (promised)
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
?
?
?
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Conclusions

• Market research
• Let users/decision makers identify needs
• Protection against biased answers
• Reduction of lead time (TTM)
• Fit to schedule incremental (train schedule)
• Prevent daughter syndrome
• IBMs PC model would have worked better
• Remove restrictions in application development
• Open research question
• Is it possible to innovate in developing
  countries?

13
Questions