Bangalore: Makers of India's most ambitious IT product, the $ 200 handheld computer, aim to sell two million units in three years but say they need the government to help the device reach the common man.

The "Simputer", launched in 2001 by a Simputer Trust consisting of software engineers and professors from the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science, will be rolled out in the Indian market later this month.

"The company hopes to sell 50,000 Simputers in the first year and has targeted sales of two million devices within three years," said Vinay Deshpande, chairman and chief executive officer of Encore Software, one of the two firms liscensed to make the Simputer.

"For the common man to buy the Simputer he must start seeing the product and believe it will give him some benefit," Deshpande, one of the main members of the Simputer Trust, said.

"For that, someone will have to take it and show it. I hope this will be done by the government. Our focus now is to get the Simputer into user hands rather than being a laboratory prototype," he said.

The Simputer, which has an Intel StrongARM processor and comes in 24 megabytes or 96 megabytes of random-access memory, has applications such as e-mail, voicemail, text- to-speech and Internet access.

The product, which aims to bridge the digital divide, was put to a severe test during the first phase of the pilot project last year in areas of e-governance such as computerisation of land and health records in the IT capital of Bangalore.

The work involved officials and villagers using the Simputer to enter field data and connecting to the Internet to track down prices of commodities.

"There is a direct benefit to the rural user. For the farmer to buy the Simputer he has to see the benefits for himself. Only then will he buy. There was an expectation that government was willing to take a leap of faith.

"But that support has not come. Though it has been a disappointment so far I believe the orders will come sooner or later. The government will end up in ordering large numbers," Deshpande said.

"Some (state) governments have put in orders. I am sure large numbers will come in as each application such as e-governance, e-education are different. One can expect sales ranging from 9,000 to 2,50,000 units from one application," he said.

The device, resembling the handheld device of Palm Inc, is priced between Rs 10,500 ($ 214) and Rs 23,000 depending on the models.

It also features a Smartcard facility for making financial transactions such as home shopping and ATMs.

Deshpande said his firm could not get the required financial support or the orders to meet an earlier deadline in December for the launch.

Encore Software, after the completion of a first pilot project for the product with customers in areas of e-governance, e-education and corporations, upgraded the device with more memory, colour screens and battery back-up.

This first-phase product is expected to be for sale commercially by month's end.

"The second phase of the project, to test the product's new features, will end in September this year. Once the customers are happy we hope our orders will be fulfilled," Deshpande said.

For the company to make profits Encore Software will have to sell 50,000 Simputers a year, he said.

He said various companies from the United States, Canada, France, New Zealand and Japan had approached Encore Software for distribution, marketing and manufacturing tie-ups.

But he said the "Made in India" tag could deter prospective global clients.

"I had a request from some firms in the Middle East. They wanted me to sell them the product without "Made in India" being written on it. I refused. Still, we got a joint venture started in Singapore to cater to the Far East," Deshpande said.

He said the company would set up manufacturing bases outside India to cater to foreign markets.

"We have to face the reality," he said.