New look.
$100 laptop for children may be nearing production
The $100 laptop may be nearing production after One Laptop per Child (OLPC), the nonprofit group behind the device, confirmed that the governments of four countries are in talks to purchase the machines.
Argentina, Brazil, Nigeria and Thailand have shown interest in the laptops, which have been billed as a durable low-cost PC for children in developing countries. The minimum order is one million units and OLPC said it will begin production once it has orders for 5-10 million machines.
STILL want one..
I wonder if they’re going to sell them to the general public, with a charitable markup, of course?
Look! A laptop Pirillo can stack his Legos on.
(Note: While I’m not a fan of the drive-by flame, I’m currently listening to a JCD-absent TWIT and am cringing anytime White Urkle speaks… about anything.)
I might buy one. Most laptops are far more than you need and too easy to break.
Not surprising Bill Gates doesn’t like it, it doen’t run his crap OS.
HA HA HA HA! Linux based!
I want one!
OK,
we need someone to fork over some money.
1 million order at $100…
Think I could add $50 to it and STILL sell it with s&h…
Im still wondering about the 5 year battery. Rather have the crank.
Back when I worked at Radio Shack we sold an all ram laptop, I think Brother made it, it was so light on power it could run on 4 double As. Imagine being able to buy your laptop replacement battery at 711 at 3 am!
What happened to the laptop? They quit making it because almost nobody would buy it as it only had 64 K! They put a man on the moon with 64 K! A lot of egos won’t buy this one either even though it’s more than they need. Yeah I’m old and curmudgeonly. Damn teenagers with their 8 tracks.
Programs the Third World needs before “One Laptop per Child”
One Sandwich Per Child
One Father per Child.
One Safe Home per Child
I just don’t get how a cheap laptop is supposed to help a kid with nothing to eat and no medical care.
I predict very few of these machines will end up in the hands of children. Many of them will be shipped right back to the States and Europe and sold on Ebay for $200.00. That’s how I will get mine.
Just to warn you all before time, this post is very badly written and I repeat a few points and It doesn’t really fit. Sorry about that but I was multitasking when I wrote this, I may make a follow up post whenever I finish what I am doing to clarify my points.
The $100 laptop has lost it’s usefullness to me. Now that dell is trying to offload all of the old non-Core 2 chips you can buy a dell desktop for $300 and a laptop for $400. This is approching the price where it is affordible for people in Africa. With that in mind the $100 laptop becomes silly. I think that dell should just make a third world computer that costs $100 and uses some older components to bring down the price.
I don’t think that any company that was created just to make a $100 laptop makes any sense. They make little rinky dink computers with silly colors, as if an African bushman cares what the computer looks like (I know that this one is made for kids but they all look the same) (more on this below). Also these companies can’t be as successfull as Dell would be if they made these. First, Dell gets a huge discount on their components because they buy so much bulk (this is probably one of the reasons why the company making these have a million unit minimum). Second, Dell could do much better because they could sell them on very low margin and make up that money with all the money they make on the high end machines. Also dell would have an advantage because they already have production facilities and experiance making these things.
So what should the $100 laptop be? First it would be a desktop. I don’t know why everyone is obsesed with the laptop concept. The only thing that I can think of is that then they would have battery life and they could carry it to a power station because most of these people don’t have electricity in the home. But I think that these computers would be used more in an internet cafe type scenario (it is hard to justify buying a laptop when you are struggling to afford food). Plus making a desktop saves a ton of cash (Dell desktop costs 25% less then a laptop) and I don’t think that the school has a real portibility problem. Speeking of Dell they should make them. If they can sell a desktop that costs $300, and lets say they have a 50% markup on them, then the units themselves only cost $150 per unit. Just cut $50 off the costs (not that hard if you use some obsolete chips) and you would break even, or cut $75 off the cost and you got a 25% margin. Even if Dell didn’t make any money, the press they would get would be huge.
Just to answer a few questions before they are asked. 50% markup is very low for consumer electronics, often the markup is closer to 3 to 5 TIMES (300-500%). I chose 50% because I am sure that the markup goes down with the price. Also, about the power problem, it wouldn’t be that hard to build a battery with a power plug that you could plug into the back of the computer or into a charging station.
Now to finish my rinky dink looks rant. Think about how much extra it is to build a custom case (then the added cost of making it red). On a machine where every doller matters, that is a waisted cost. If Dell was making this thing they would put it in the regular black case that not only would be more cost effective, but it can take more of a beating. What happens when a kid drops the current design (or presses a key too hard by the look of this piece of crap) and it shatters into pieces? Also, are they expecting kids to each buy one (as shown by the carrying case)? Why not just make a school computer lab with cheep desktops that the whole school can use insted of having everyone buy a laptop? This whole thing makes no sense.
#9 perhaps the kid will bring up google maps and see “hey, we live in a fricken desert…there’s no food here. Let’s move to where the food is”. Then he can find places on the web that deal in luggage to help in the move.
Yes, I totally ripped this off from the late, great Sam Kinison.
The minimum order is one million units and OLPC said it will begin production once it has orders for 5-10 million machines.
WTF?
They’ll be traded off for food when the possibility arrives.
Nice idea, but what’s the point of giving the 3rd world countries laptop if their own governments can’t even take responsibility for economic growth. It totally ticks me off to see these hungry children on television that you can sponsor for $30 p/m. Don’t get me wrong – I know it’s tough there, but why should we send our money to them when their governments just hand out relief instead of doing something worth while, like, let say create more jobs, build an economy!
The bum in the street is the 3rd world country. It may or may not have been his own fault for getting in that position, but as long as the world hands out charity he will never stop being a bum.
While I am sure there will be some stolen, I doubt if it will exceed more then 1 or 2%. These will be so underpowered for what we would expect for normal use yet work very well for their intended purpose.
#9…Bdgbill….this is essentially what I said when this was posted last week.
What good is a computor if the kids have never had schooling, because there are no teachers, classrooms, or books. Have any of you ever been to some of the larger cities in Arica? Most of the poor(which is most of the residents) can’t afford electricity, running water or 1 good meal every couple of days, but ohhhhhh yea…lets sell them a damn laptop.
Does anyone really think these laptops when given to the country’s leaders will ever see needy people? Can anyone in here name 1 country in Africa that isn’t riddled with corruption, usually from the leader on down? Don’t go running to Google, because there isn’t a single country in the entire continient that isn’t corrupt. Including South Africa, but it is the best thing going in Africa.
Let these guys give Doctors without Borders 50,000,000.00 dollars and watch what can be done, or some of the smaller task oriented chariity groups that aren’t sponsored by the prevailing goverment of any of the countries there.
This is just another *make the computor maker rich* scheme.
10,
I know what you mean.
I agree, abit…
But until prices for imports DROP in this country(USA) to what they SHOULD/could be….
This item is very nice in alot of reason…War networking comes to mind.
this thing is HOT.
A significant portion of the cost of the laptops — for what is essentially a non-profit corporation — has been the fact that NO Western computer companies were actually willing to help the project. A great deal of off-the-shelf pricing [a la Dell] simply isn’t available to them.
So, big production numbers, pre-sold, are required. The dynamic of the whole process is being skewed by the economics of scale in [1] normal production growth elsewhere and [2] similar projects appearing from like-minded groups — albeit keying in a small profit to build start-ups into real companies.
Example — and this translates terribly into English — the Yellow Sheep River Municator project in China think they can hit a retail price of $150 for a laptop. They’re not funded any better than the MIT project; but, have the advantage of being in the land of affordable silicon. They’re not looking to export.
Patrick, keep the comments a wee bit shorter than a Chapter in War & Peace. Geez.
And Patrick, a 50% markup on a 150 cost leads to a $225 price.
Negroponte was at this year’s TED conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design). He talked at length about the $100 Laptop and why he felt it would be useful. The TED site has the video, 18 minutes long and worth the watch.
http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/
What a lot of you are forgetting is that there isn’t a curtain over the land delineating rich from poor (although there may be one day). There are a lot of people in India who aren’t starving villagers or dot-com telemarketers. This computer will also help the small businessperson, the child in a decent school that can’t afford machines, the entrepreneur, and the farmer.
A cheap laptop from a western market may not be rugged, simple, or light enough to be useful to someone who sets up shop from a backpack.
While this product may sink without a trace, I believe it will find a place in that gray area of almost-middle-class living at the edges of the rich world everywhere.
Why don’t they sell it to the public (anyone) for $200, then use the extra $100 to provide FREE laptops to Africa?
How long after the first one is shipped will we see it listed on e-bay starting at $200?
– Maybe that’s the plan – let the poor countries buy them for $100 and sell them to the western countries for profit!
I have some concerns here.
POWER to recharge these things.
It may come as a surpricse but over half of this planet, ISNT covered with power lines.
2/3 of the world DONT have power to their HUTS.
Thinking this way, How many of these locations Have access to a PHONE LINE, and on top of that, WIRELESS NETWORK access?
These units may be able to Net each other, but without power those batteries AINT going to last without a charge. Even with a fancy 5 year battery, it HAS to be recharged.
Unless these folks are adding a hand generator ALL of these are a waste of time.
From the article:
I wonder why I cannot find any comment from John C Dvorak about the OLPC.. Comon! OLPC will change the world, it’s the equivalent of penicillin for civilisation..
I think it will surprise some people how cheap Linux computers will not only close the digital divide within 5 year, it will also make western countries computing experience much more effective.
Most people just need a browser, email and multimedia files playback.. When you can buy a laptop or a set-top-box for your HDTV that does just that.. and does it right to the point, fast, no BS, no bloatware..
Look at the size of the Windows or Apple OS, they are Gygabytes in size on your harddrive, and hundreds of megabytes in your ram. Try guess how many % of all this that a normal person really needs. I´d guess no even 5% of Windows and Apple OS is usefull, while the rest is just a bunch of BS, bloat spam, a conspiracy to make us pay more for software and hardware. All this bloat makes computing less accessible to people, and makes it innaccessible to the third world. When 95% of your computer is bloat, average person is less likely to see the usefullness of the technology.