Laptop for all? [LWN.net]

Laptop for all?

Posted May 30, 2006 14:07 UTC (Tue) by mattdm (subscriber, #18)
In reply to: Laptop for all? by niner
Parent article: OLPC hardware details posted

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.

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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.