We’d be impressed if anyone remembered this, but the very first non-test post on Gizmodo was about the Simputer, a handheld computer designed to be used by the world’s rural poor. At the time we reported that the Indian non-profit group which designed the Simputer had been having some trouble finding licensees to actually build them. Now, over a year later, Rediff follows up to see how things are going and finds that there are still some problems getting Simputers, which turned out to cost as much as a desktop PC, into the hands of people who need them. One licensee, Encore, has sold fewer than a couple of thousand, while the other licensee, PicoPeta, has yet to even put their version of the Simputer on sale.
