The Utility Model
Published by Mysorean on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 at 1:15:00 am.
At a stunning $100 (monitor extra) we are sure of hitting the sweet spot. But the point is that when we reach the home segment, the box will not be sold unit-wise. It will be bundled along with the network connection that you ask for. You might apply for a Wi-Fi connection or a broadband connection or a triple play connection (More about this later) alongwith which you will get a Nova NetPC as the end-device. Similar to how you get a telephone instrument on applying for a telephone connection.
But the similarity doesn't end there. You use your phone under a particular scheme and you pay the corresponding rental and usage charges, right?! Well, Novatium intends to relay computing through the same model. You will pay a constant rental for the device at your end. And choose a scheme. The scheme might look very similar to your broadband schemes. Apart from that you will have a choose your application scheme. Based on the OS & applications you choose, you will be billed. A sample bill is shown below:
| Sl No. | Particulars | Units | Cost per unit | Sub - Total | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monthly Rental |
|
|
| 350 |
|
| CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) |
|
| 200 |
|
|
| Broadband |
|
| 100 |
|
|
| Application |
|
| 50 |
|
| 2 | Usage Charges |
|
|
| 1805.5 |
|
| Broadband (1 Unit = 1 MB) | 500 | 0.5 | 250 |
|
|
| Applications used |
|
|
|
|
|
| - Windows OS (1 Unit = 1 Hour) | 87.5 | 10 | 875 |
|
|
| - MS Word (1 Unit = 30 minutes) | 40 | 1.5 | 60 |
|
|
| - MS Excel (1 Unit = 30 minutes) | 20 | 1.5 | 30 |
|
|
| - MS Powerpoint (1 Unit = 30 mins) | 15 | 1.5 | 22.5 |
|
|
| Special applications used (if any) |
|
|
|
|
|
| - Network games (1 Unit = 30 mins) | 40 | 10 | 400 |
|
|
| - Programming shell (1 Unit = 2 hrs) | 15 | 10 | 150 |
|
|
| - VoIP software (1 Unit = 1 min) | 60 | 0.3 | 18 |
|
| 3 | Telephone charges |
|
|
| 90 |
|
| Call charges (Itemized charges attached) (1 Unit = 1 min) | 300 | 0.3 | 90 |
|
|
| |||||
|
| TOTAL [(1) + (2) + (3)] |
|
|
| 2245.5 |
|
| |||||
This is an absolute fantasy of a bill. When I include Windows as one of the applications being used, then the bill seems to shoot up. If Linux is adopted as the OS, then the bill would work out to be 2245.50 - [(875) + (60) + (30) + (22.50)] = Rs. 1258/- In this money, you have used your computer to download 500 MB worth of data from the net, played interesting network games for 1 hr a day (excluding weekends) and also talked on the telephone.
Actually, it's not the money that's important. It's the mode of payment that should interest you. No more spending of thousands to acquire a computer and later spending more to maintain it. More than the money spent it's the time and peace of mind that gets affected by running behind the dealers and the others of that ilk.
Let's hope we are able to ring in the utlity model with success! :)
