An e-governance kiosk requires a PC, a printer, internet connectivity, lighting, and backup power. The power requirements of the whole system are high, with the PC itself requiring between 200 Watts to 300 Watts of power. Providing adequate electric power backup adds to the cost of the system. The constraints on the availability of electric power curtails the reach and utility of these kiosks.

Indian language input in this system uses the PC keyboard and the input methods supported by the PC operating system. While end users do not operate these kiosks directly, the kiosk operators do however need to be trained to use these input methods.

The Windows™ operating system uses Unicode as the character encoding for indian languages. Access to the central server is through standard protocols like HTTP and TCP/IP. Compliance of these systems to other standards is not known.

These systems work with local information, for example, the Bhoomi project of the Karnataka land administration allows land records to be updated from sub-district level data centers.

The value provided by the e-governance kiosk lies in the transparency it brings into the working of the government and in streamlining government procedures for common administrative tasks.

The use of an e-governance booth requires physical access which raises the risk of certain segments of society being excluded in rural contexts. In practice, the high electrical power requirements for these kiosks restrict them to towns and urban areas, where feudal strictures are weaker.

Software development for this effort is centralized and there is limited scope for customization on a per-kiosk basis. The wider developer ecosystem is not involved.

The power consumption of the Simputer comes in the way of its effectiveness as a PDA. The available power options (the use of 3 AAA NiMH cells or grid power) restrict its use.

The Simputer has a touch screen; however it does not offer handwriting recogntion. An on-screen keyboard is used for English input. Text to speech output is possible in a few Indian languages.

The Simputer's operating system uses open-source components; its ability to be standards compliant is dependent on the support for Indian language standards in the open-source world.

If the basic issues of power, usability and interoperability are solved, the Simputer could serve as a data collection and display component in a larger system designed around local information sources.

The initial applications of the Simputer appear to lack significant value addition for the Indian consumer. The true value of a device like the Simputer may emerge after there are networks dealing with local information in place.

The Simputer makes no attempt to work around social barriers. Given the existing social structures in the typical village, it is difficult to see a village headman and an untouchable sharing the same Simputer.

The software bundled with the Simputer is open-source. The scarcity of open-source developers interested in Indian language work is thus a serious drawback for the project.

The Simputer initiative is device centric. It has not addressed the issues involved in building a developer community around indian languages.

Cellular phones are low power devices, and can operate for hours on a single battery charge. They are usable even in remote, power-starved villages.

The cell phone network's base stations nevertheless require large amounts of electric power to operate.

For the task that they are designed for (voice calls), cell phones are eminently usable. For Indic scripts the numeric keyboard of the cellphone is an inefficient means of input. The cellular phone's display also tends to be small.

The standards compliance level of the indian language features of these devices is not known.

Some cellular service providers offer a limited form of contextually sensitive data dissemination (e.g., weather forecasts). However, the information flow in such systems is fundamentally one way (from the service provider to the user).

The cellphone network provides a high degree of value to its users. The ability to generate and share data in local languages would be the next large value addition.

Wireless and low-power operation allows the cell phone to bypass social structures relatively easily.

The cellular phone is not fundamentally an open platform. Cell phone hardware is not standardized, and cell phone operating systems tend to be proprietary.