Government-purchased iPads for all Thai students?

GlobalPost

When Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told voters last summer she planned to give out free tablet computers to all primary school students, I suspected the kids would end up with no-name iPad knockoffs.

But there is new hope that they'll get some version of the real deal.

Bangkok Post is reporting that Thailand's government has been talking to Apple and that Android (Google's operating system) is in the running as well.

Both tech giants are likely eager to lock in this deal, which would eventually offer 800,000 tablets to kids nationwide, according to a Thailand-based researcher for NextWeb.

The one-tablet-per-child scheme is among the package of grand promises Yingluck made during July elections. Others include loads of new rail lines, a giant seawall and a plan to "Say Goodbye to Flooding and Drought!"

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