Josey Puliyenthuruthel: Simple computing

Tech Talk

PicoPeta, architect of Amida handheld computer, has many hurdles ahead

A few decades from now computing as we know it today will be looked back upon as being extremely clumsy and inefficient. The word processor I'm using to write this column and the operating system it runs on will be seen as horrendously bloated, even discounting for the multitude of features it offers me. In time, elegant and light programs and applications will more be the rule, especially if monopolies in computing industries are broken up; which should happen sooner or later, by honest and tough regulators or leaps in technology or consumer pressure.

One of the many changes happening in this direction surfaced in India last month. PicoPeta Simputers Pvt. Ltd., a small nine-person start-up in Bangalore, together with the state-owned Bharat Electronics Ltd, unveiled the Amida Simputer, a hand held computing device. Behind a slightly clunky device, lies an interesting story of academia-driven innovation and product development, the first of its kind in India.

The name Amida can be traced to the ancient Indian language Sanskrit and is derived from the root 'amita,' meaning unbounded. PicoPeta hopes to liberate customers with the handheld and philosophically has adopted a design approach unlike any handheld I have seen. "The Amida is a standalone device on its own," says V. Vinay, chairman and chief technologist of PicoPeta. "Most handhelds have just a USB slave port. We have two USB ports "� one master and the other slave "� on the Amida, allowing it to work well with a range of devices on its own."

The USB, or universal serial bus ports, on the back of most computers today works on the principle of a host driving up to 127 devices. The presence of a USB master port on the Amida means that it can technically drive any device "� for instance, a printer, a camera or a music player "� and in that sense can be used as a computing device in its own right. That raises a whole host of applications and uses the Amida can be put to. Though Vinay gets almost defensive that the device will not replace a personal computer, this critical functionality will help PicoPeta in, say, a year or two from now, to reach out to its real target market "� the first time computer user.

The Amida, for those in the know, had an earlier avatar in the Simputer in 2001 and was billed as the poor man's computer. The idea was primed by a seven-member team "� the core from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore "� which formed the Simputer Trust with "the broad goal of harnessing the potential of information technology for the benefit of the weaker sections of society."

It took two years of running behind potential government, non-governmental and corporate customers by the Simputerians to decide that the effort was not going anywhere, despite the Simputer being a sub-Rs 10,000 product. The customers who were willing to try out the product were willing to commit to pilot projects of fewer than five machines! "There was no way we would have scale with such orders," says Vinay, trying hard not to sound bitter.

The choice was evident: by the end of 2002, PicoPeta decided to take the product retail. Its nine-member team worked for a year and a little more to build upon the work already done and come up with over a 100 packages on what is today's Amida. That work and the pedigree of the developers shows through: the Amida has the best suite of (non-Windows based) applications I have seen yet, although the team needs to iron out the eccentric absence of some functionalities. Hardware development happened simultaneously and, although the Amida's 'form factor' (jargon for shape) is not the best, it is not bad for the first version of an indigenous handheld computer.

So, will the Amida fly? Will it be able to take on the market-strangling power wielded by the Palm OS-driven computing platform on the one hand and Microsoft's WinCE on the other? I am pessimistic for the following reasons. One, the Amida is not cheap with its base model selling at just under Rs 10,000. Two, PicoPeta does not look like a company geared to undertake a retail blitzkrieg; it is still run by technologists with little experience in running a sexy gizmo business. Three, the product has a number of versions to go before it can even think of taking on its competitors and I am not sure the company has the stamina and resources to last that long; it is funded for just Rs 4 crore.

The way out then perhaps is to work on these three hurdles. Pricing is linked to projected demand and offtake. PicoPeta needs to aggressively target the big potential customers of the device like e-governance implementers or large companies in India and south Asia that have armies of salespeople on the road and need a cheap device to hook with their enterprises. I know this is difficult, but if Vinay's team can crack a sub-Rs 5,000 pricing and put in place a team to customise applications for clients, PicoPeta may be able to stay in the race.

Next, it should outsource the marketing and selling effort to a specialist or license the product to a set of such outfits. Finally, I think there could be a market for the Amida software platform and applications, especially with the increasing popularity of Linux-based devices. The Amida OS "� and not the device itself "� might be PicoPeta's real success story.

Josey Puliyenthuruthel works at content company perZuade. His views are personal and may not be endorsed by his employer, the company's investors, customers or vendors. Comments may be sent to josey@perzuade.com