Haitian artist Richard Josue uses a Surtab tablet, an Android-based tablet assembled in Haiti from imported...
Haitian artist Richard Josue uses a Surtab tablet, an Android-based tablet assembled in Haiti from imported components, along a sidewalk in Port-au-Prince March 13, 2014. Sandwiched between textile factories in a Port-au-Prince industrial park next to a slum, the Haitian-founded company has begun manufacturing the low-cost tablet called Surtab, a name closely resembling the Haitian Creole for "on the table". With $200,000 in start-up funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and using imported Asian components, the factory produces three models all with 7-inch (18-cm) screens that run on Google Inc's Android operation system. They range from a simple wifi tablet with 512 megabytes of RAM for about $100, to a 3G model with 2-gigabytes of memory for $285. The small factory with 40 employees is a throwback to the 1970s and 1980s when Haiti had a thriving assembly industry, including computer boards, as well as baseballs for U.S. professional teams. To match story HAITI-TABLET/ Picture taken March 13, 2014. REUTERS/Marie Arago (HAITI - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT)