There are computers, cheap computers, and then there’s the very cheapest of the cheap.  The government of India, seeking to save some money and provide computers for its population of several billion people, has decided to do OLPC one better.  The inexpensive laptop computer has been one-upped as India’s Human Resources Minister, Shri Kapil Sibal, has unveiled the country’s $35 laptop.

Best of all, the company hopes that the $35 laptop eventually gets driven down to $10 via competition.  Now, the device isn’t the most capable thing on the market, but considering that it’s got a color touchscreen display, 2GB of memory, a USB port, and the ability to play YouTube videos.  If you throw in a very lite word processing program, I think you’ve got pretty much everything you could possibly need on the go at an incredibly low investment.

Here’s the question:  how’s it even possible?  To roll out a laptop for significantly less than the cost of a cell phone, even with India’s billion-population buying power and ability to access very cheap manual labor for the making of these machines, is mind-blowing.