Laptop for all? [LWN.net]

Laptop for all?

Posted May 30, 2006 11:20 UTC (Tue) by rvfh (subscriber, #31018)
Parent article: OLPC hardware details posted

I can't help thinking that this laptop would be ideal for a number of applications, outside of the current scope, for example in my hands!

That made me wonder if it would not be possible to have scheme, sort of: I buy one of these for $300, which I think is a good price for it, and two computers go free to some children in the world.

After all, a lot of us first world people can afford $300 easily, whereas minimum salary here in Brazil is R$350, about $160...

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Laptop for all?

Posted May 30, 2006 13:56 UTC (Tue) by niner (subscriber, #26151) [Link]

The OLPC product will not be marketed normally, but sold directly to governments in high quantities, so they can give it to the children. This has a nice side-effect: if any of these laptops are found in any regular market, you instantly know, that it was sold illegaly.

These laptops are for education of children, not for being sold for money. Ideally, they are unsellable, so they can only benefit the children, in the way that seems most useful

Laptop for all?

Posted May 30, 2006 14:07 UTC (Tue) by mattdm (subscriber, #18) [Link]

But why can't the be used to benefit the children of wealthier nations as well, at a non-subsidized price? I'm not sure the artificial restriction of "you instantly know it was sold illegally" is strong enough to be effective. A lot of people won't care, or will rationalize ("that kid needed money for food more than a computer"). Instead, the earlier poster's proposal sounds great -- selling them to anyone at a low price means that there's no reason anyone would want to buy one that's meant for some other child.

Laptop for all?

Posted May 30, 2006 14:18 UTC (Tue) by mattdm (subscriber, #18) [Link]

In fact, from the FAQ:

In 2007 we plan to explore innovative ways of financing the laptops peer-to-peer, where kids in the USA, for example, buy them for kids in Africa, perhaps the same age and gender, knowing the specific child. Others have already started a website that sells our laptop for $300, so the balance of money can be used to support the poorest children.

Sounds great!

Laptop for all?

Posted May 30, 2006 16:17 UTC (Tue) by kh (subscriber, #19413) [Link]

With all the fights they have been having with manfacturers with the promise to sell them to only a very limited market, I wonder what problems they would face if they stated they were going to offer the thing to anyone. I think you would at least see proxy (e.g. SCO) lawsuits. This may commodize a number of markets away from some very large companies - and they don't seem too happy.

Laptop for all?

Posted May 30, 2006 19:05 UTC (Tue) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link]

Fortunately, the corporations have not yet managed to create a world where selling a cheaper product is a legal offense. Some countries (including the US) have "anti-dumping" laws, meaning that you can't deliberately sell a product at a loss just to put your competitor out of business, and sometimes these laws are abused.

The key enabler to the $100 laptop is a $0 cost for the operating system; Microsoft currently charges large manufacturers like Dell and HP about $50.

A $200 laptop in a retail store is not possible if Microsoft has to be paid $50 for the Windows license. The retailer is going to need a 40% markup, minimum, to pay the employees and the rent and make some profit, maybe more, and the manufacturer needs a profit, plus some overhead to allow for replacement of defective machines. In a few years, Microsoft is either going to have to settle for $20 instead of $50 on low-end machines or lose market share.