I just got a chance to catch up with the folks at Datawind, and while they’re a bit behind schedule, they do still plan to bring the Ubisurfer netbook to the US. The latest target date is Q2, 2010, (as opposed to October, 2009). If Datawind actually manages to launch the Ubisurfer soon, it could poke a hole in the smartbook industry that’s still in its pre-infancy.

Here’s why: The Ubisurfer costs $199 up front. And that’s it. That price will buy you a 7 inch netbook plus a data plan good for up to 30 hours per month of downloads over a CDMA/EV-DO connection. There’s no data limit, just an hour limit. If you want more time, you pay $9.99 a month. And after the first year, you just pay $49 per year to keep using the connection.

Compare that with the $40 to $60 per month that mobile wireless operators are expected to charge for data plans to go with smartbooks such as the upcoming Lenovo Skylight.

That said, the Datawind Ubisurfer isn’t much to look at, and it certainly doesn’t offer much in the specs department. It features a 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display, an ARM-based processor, a tiny keyboard, an awkward touchpad with buttons on the left and right, and a light weight Linux distribution. If you’ve ever tried surfing the web with Firefox using a device like this, you know that the experience can be kind of sluggish and painful. But Datawind has a solution.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Datawind Ubisurfer isn’t exactly the most impressive looking netbok. It’s got a small 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display, a rather larger bezel around the screen, and a keyboard with an awkwardly placed right-shift key. But there is one thing that makes this little netbook stand out. When you pony up £159, or about $259 US for the netbook, you get 30 hours a month of free internet access over the built-in GPRS modem with a Vodafone SIM card.

That free internet access is available only in the UK, but there are roaming rates of 5p/minute elsewhere in Europe and the US. I think that’s about 8 cents a minute, US. Users that aren’t happy with the 30 hour/month limit can upgrade to an unlimited plan for £5.99 ($9.76) per month.

The Ubisurfer has 128MB of RAM, 1GB of flash storage, and features a Linux-based operating system. You can also get online using 802.11b/g WiFi. The netbook has 3 USB ports, mic and headphone jacks, and weighs 1.8 pounds. It measures 8.7″ x 6.5″ x 1.2″ and includes a web browser, word processor, PDF viewer, and other software.

Check out Pocket Lint for some hands-on photos of the netbook.

Update: Gearlog reports that the UbiSurfer will be available in the US this October for $199. The US version will include a CDMA module and 30 hours a month of free internet access for 1 year. via Engadget

UK company Datawind makes a handheld internet device called the PocketSurfer with a 640 x 240 pixel display and a GPRS modem for always available internet connections. What makes the company’s business model unique is that users can surf for up to 20 hours per month for free for the first year. An additional year of service will cost £40, and you can get unlimited access for £5.99 per month. It’s not a blazing fast 3G connection, but it is cheap.

Now it looks like the company is preparing to release a full sized netbook with a larger, higher resolution display and a touch-typable keyboard. There’s not a lot of information available at the moment about the specs. I don’t know what kind of processor it will use, how much storage, or even what size the display will be. But if the goal is to compete with other netbooks, I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that we’ll see a device with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU and an 8.9 inch or 10.2 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display.

And like the current PocketSurfer line of handhelds, Datawind plans to offer limited internet access without a contract or a monthly bill. Datawind’s netbook should be out early next year.