Rant about slowdown in computer hardware in India.

threeonethree

Journeyman
Hi,

Around 4-5 years ago we had just came out of the DOS era.I started reading digit around 2003.At that time most of the people were running Pentium 3 computers or Pentium 4 computers with 128 MB Ram if they were lucky. These computers cost around 30k - 40k at that time.Laptops were prohibitively expensive .After reading digit for couple of years and practicing on other peoples computers, I decided to buy my own computer around 2005. It had an AMD Athlon 2400+ Processor , 512 MB DDR2 RAM , 17 Inch CRT Monitor ,256 MB Geforce FX 5200 Graphics card, 80 GB HDD and cost me close to 33K at that time. It did most of the tasks i asked it to do and also ran revolutionary and mind blowing games like GTA vice city, Half life 2 , Doom 3, Max Payne, Unreal tournament etc. I also had a 512 Kbps Night Unlimited Internet from BSNL for around 500 Rs PM.

Then in 2009 , I decided to buy my first Laptop. I got a Dell studio 1555 with 15 Inch LED , Core 2 Duo P8600 with 4 GB DDR 3 RAM, 500 GB HDD , Onboard ATI Graphics HD 4570 with 1 GB. As you can see the leap in hardware was almost exponential.I spent around 60K on this Laptop then .From Desktops to Laptops which were many times more powerful in a span of a few years. Just like the revolutionary Jump from Days of Windows 98 / DOS to Windows XP. However there was no improvement over the Internet connectivity.

Now in 2015, My laptop has died. So I went over to the same Dell website and lo and behold, for 60K they are offering me a laptop with Intel core i5 Processor with 8 GB RAM , Same old LED monitor and a crappy on board GPU. Although This is an improvement over my earlier laptop but this is nothing revolutionary. In fact for most day to day tasks like browsing the Web , Sending Email and listening to Music, Playing Movies/ Games , This laptop will be exactly the same as my 7 Year old laptop. Now compare this with the phones available in 2009 to the phones available in 2015. Now i can get Phones which have an higher clock speed and almost same RAM as my old Laptop but seems like the laptop / Desktop space has stopped innovating. Also , I looked up and still could not find a BSNL 1 Mbps unlimited home broadband connection in 2015. This is shameful. Seems like the golden days when we had hope for better days to come are gone.
 

bssunilreddy

Chosen of the Omnissiah
Thats not the point i am making. Read it again.

it's 2015 and we do not have unlimited 1MBPS broadband from BSNL when we had unlimited 512 KBPS connection (with night unlimited) around 2005.

Yes there is slow down in technologies in India in general.
They are only improving a technology but not inventing new ones which we didn't hear about. So if you think in this way, Yes there is a slow down in technology point of view.

As per Broadband is concerned north India is moving in a slow pace as compared to south India.
We in Hyderabad has 1MBPS in 2010 itself as basic plan now 50MBPS being offered as the Top end Plan. Even BSNL basic plan in 2010 was 1MBPS but it is also offering 20MBPS in Hyderabad.

In Chennai & Bangalore as part of ACT Broadband we are getting 20-50MBPS Plans.
In Mumbai & other cities in south India as part of Hathway Broadband 20-100MBPS Plans came into existence.

Compared to south, in north India there is no such enterprise which is offering or offers such plans as of now.
Technology arrives faster in South India compared to the north.

As per pricing of Computer Hardware is concerned even south dominates in cheap prices to north.
In Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore we have GTX960 for 15k where as in north it is still available for 16k locally.
 
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dashing.sujay

Moving
Staff member
You just cannot compare growth of two specific periods.
The pre-period situation is what fuels the growth.
In P3/P4 times, hardware was in its boom phase but now since it's simply not possible to develop on that scale.
 
OP
T

threeonethree

Journeyman
Yes there is slow down in technologies in India in general.
They are only improving a technology but not inventing new ones which we didn't hear about. So if you think in this way, Yes there is a slow down in technology point of view.

As per Broadband is concerned north India is moving in a slow pace as compared to south India.
We in Hyderabad has 1MBPS in 2010 itself as basic plan now 50MBPS being offered as the Top end Plan. Even BSNL basic plan in 2010 was 1MBPS but it is also offering 20MBPS in Hyderabad.

In Chennai & Bangalore as part of ACT Broadband we are getting 20-50MBPS Plans.
In Mumbai & other cities in south India as part of Hathway Broadband 20-100MBPS Plans came into existence.

Compared to south, in north India there is no such enterprise which is offering or offers such plans as of now.
Technology arrives faster in South India compared to the north.

As per pricing of Computer Hardware is concerned even south dominates in cheap prices to north.
In Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore we have GTX960 for 15k where as in north it is still available for 16k locally.

I am speaking about unlimited Plans and not idiotic FUP plans that are being introduced. That way anybody can offer 100 Mbps fiber plans and Charge 1 Rupee per Kb after 1 GB download limit. I do not even want to mention crappy 3G / 4G connections offered with absurd download limits. Search google for ACT broadband FUP scam , hathway FUP etc to know what i am talking about. I do not think they provide even 1 Mbps true unlimited broadband.

I am speaking about the whole country and not North India specifically. With the advent of websites like Flipkart , Snapdeal etc , I do not think there should be any major difference of prices of gadgets between North and South India.

You just cannot compare growth of two specific periods.
The pre-period situation is what fuels the growth.
In P3/P4 times, hardware was in its boom phase but now since it's simply not possible to develop on that scale.​

Why cant we compare growths of two specific periods? Yes we can. Actually hardware is still in boom phase if you speak about Mobile hardware and other countries.

Actually It saddens me to see that nobody here touches on the real reasons.

First real reason is multiple scams commited by previous governments like 2G Scam , 3G Scam etc. If natural resources were looted in this way and if that was the attitude of the government, I do not think they were even concerned about improving the services for the population. Second big reason is Devaluation of the Rupee. In 2005 Rupee was almost Touching Rs 40 per Dollar and now its close to Rs 65. That's an increase of over 60% . This alone wipes out reduction of prices due to innovation to a large degree. Another Reason is the Thailand floods of 2011 that disrupted supply chains and increased the prices of hard disk drives.

I am surprised no one touched these points and many more. Digit used to have intelligent readers back in the day (2003-2007).
 

chimera201

Wise Old Owl
Yes the Indian rupee has lost its value against the dollar in recent years tremendously. 3 years back a GTX 560 Ti cost about 14K. Now an equivalent mid range card GTX 970 costs about 29K. GPUs have progressed in performance but because of the increase in cost in India it doesn't feel like it. CPUs on the other hand has become stagnant since Sandy Bridge mainly because there isn't any competition to Intel and AMD is going in loss after loss every year. There is a lot of manufacturers in the smartphone market so the competition is high and the tech is evolving at a fast rate cause of the competition.
 
OP
T

threeonethree

Journeyman
Yes the Indian rupee has lost its value against the dollar in recent years tremendously. 3 years back a GTX 560 Ti cost about 14K. Now an equivalent mid range card GTX 970 costs about 29K. GPUs have progressed in performance but because of the increase in cost in India it doesn't feel like it. CPUs on the other hand has become stagnant since Sandy Bridge mainly because there isn't any competition to Intel and AMD is going in loss after loss every year. There is a lot of manufacturers in the smartphone market so the competition is high and the tech is evolving at a fast rate cause of the competition.

If only we had affordable Ubuntu phones / Tabs with video out and wireless portable keyboards and unlimited 4G connections. Laptops / Desktops would have been last-gen and everything would have been alright with the world.

Also one thing baffles me is that Google used linux as a base to create android successfully but why did not all these distro makers started making Linux Distros phones ? That would have been cool to choose whatever distro you want to install on your phone. Add a wireless keyboard and a TV monitor and you are good to go.
 

TheFallenLord

Journeyman
I've been using BSNL EVDO for quite some time now which provides 3.1 Mbps down/1.8 Mbps up unlimited plan with NO FUP for Rs. 750 pm only. Although I mostly get around 1 Mbps only due to low signal strength in my area but if you're lucky you can get 2 Mbps+ speed in areas with better signal strength (tested by me). The connectivity is a big issue here due to poorly laid out infrastructure otherwise it's a much better and cheaper alternative to the crappy 3G/4G plans available in our country.
 

v.Na5h

Off Hook!
I've been using BSNL EVDO for quite some time now which provides 3.1 Mbps down/1.8 Mbps up unlimited plan with NO FUP for Rs. 750 pm only. Although I mostly get around 1 Mbps only due to low signal strength in my area but if you're lucky you can get 2 Mbps+ speed in areas with better signal strength (tested by me). The connectivity is a big issue here due to poorly laid out infrastructure otherwise it's a much better and cheaper alternative to the crappy 3G/4G plans available in our country.
That is temporary ...
Wireless is never a long term solution for heavy downloading..
 
OP
T

threeonethree

Journeyman
Also BSNL EVDO works only for a few lucky people and for majority others who are slightly out of range it barely loads websites well.

It would be safe to say that after 2004 India does not have a truly nation wide 1 Mbps connection no FUP unlimited connection. In fact we have gone behind since then because 512 Kbps connections were barely acceptable back then but since with increased data needs in 2015 , we have actually regressed in 10 years instead of going forward in this space.

Some time ago i read that India is in the bottom of the barrel in Asia pacific region in terms of net speed. But if we take the FUP and capped speeds into consideration we should truly be bottom of the barrel in the whole world. Infact i also read in a paper that things are going to get WORSE in the coming 4-5 years as the net population increases and capacities remain the same.

I read an article in Digit magazine in 2005 i think which advocated 1 Mbps internet connection speeds back then.It was also the period where broadband was defined in India at minimum 256 Kbps - 512 Kbps range .Its horrible to know that one decade has passed since then and we are still stuck. One decade in technology time is an eternity ! We still do not have any notification by TRAI to increase the minimum bandwidth definition to at least 1-2 Mbps and to Increase the ridiculous FUP limits to at least 150 GB per month. Instead we have babus and ministers eating public money.

I do not understand why we are not on the streets regarding this and why there haven't been devastating cyber attacks on TRAI , Private company's and Indian Government's infrastructure in protest and retaliation against this human rights crime.

Here is some reference for you guys. From 2014.

NEW DELHI: Telecom sector regulator Trai has notified that the minimum broadband speed has been raised to 512 kilobytes per second (kbps) from the earlier 256kbps.
The earlier minimum broadband speed of 256kbps was as per the Broadband Policy 2004.

Trai increases minimum broadband speed to 512kbps - The Times of India

I just want to get this out of my system so bear with me. **** INDIA.
 
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Anorion

Sith Lord
Staff member
Admin
I want to hit every physical hardware seller I've ever encountered with the harware they are selling
they all try to push whatever they make the most profit out of to their customers, and almost every one walks away with what those guys want to sell instead of what they went to buy
 

v.Na5h

Off Hook!
I want to hit every physical hardware seller I've ever encountered with the harware they are selling
they all try to push whatever they make the most profit out of to their customers, and almost every one walks away with what those guys want to sell instead of what they went to buy
Online..FTW
 

chimera201

Wise Old Owl
I don't understand why the media doesn't cover 512Kbps and FUP policies when they covered net neutrality on a big scale. Maybe net neutrality offers more clicks and views.
 

sling-shot

Wise Old Owl
There is this plan BBG Combo ULD 1445 on this page - *bsnl.in/opencms/bsnl/BSNL/services/broadband/BB_plans_less_speed.html

Did I miss something in the posts above?
 

Nerevarine

Incarnate
I want to hit every physical hardware seller I've ever encountered with the harware they are selling
they all try to push whatever they make the most profit out of to their customers, and almost every one walks away with what those guys want to sell instead of what they went to buy

absolutely, thats why TDF exists
 
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