Australian IT – Poor don’t want clockwork laptop (Peter Apps, DECEMBER 12, 2005) — Intel thinks this device sucks because it is not an Intel device. That said I think Intel may be right. I suspect that there will be some sort of carnival-like outcome of all this. Idealistic concepts coming from the utopian-centric rich folks at MIT are seldom workable outside the lab. I suspect this will be nothing more than a feel-good idea when it’s over with. And everyone can go home saying that at least they tried. And, in fact, at least they tried.
“Mr Negroponte has called it a $100 laptop – I think a more realistic title should be ‘the $100 gadget’,” Mr Barrett, chairman of the world’s largest chip maker, told a press conference in Sri Lanka. “The problem is that gadgets have not been successful.”
Reminds me of medicine and mice. Every few weeks some researcher claims they cured cancer in mice, and increase lifespan 5x. The sad thing is a very small percentage of these wonders make it to humans. I don’t think MIT’s lab research will have much bearing on the developing world either. For one thing many of the shipped ones will end up as cash in some generalissimo’s pocket.
It is interesting that rich westerners were willing to work with 8088 chips in the original IBM pcs and thought they were in heaven with merely a floppy drive and a few hundred K of memory. Of course, they weren’t trying to run windows. Now I feel deprived since I’m only running a 3 year old dual Xeon machine at work.
If one had the desire, one could do much with a $100 laptop. Assuming of course that they are really producible.
What I find hilarious is this quote from Barrett:
“It turns out what people are looking for is something is something that has the full functionality of a PC,” he said. “Reprogrammable to run all the applications of a grown up PC… not dependent on servers in the sky to deliver content and capability to them, not dependent for hand cranks for power.”
Does he have ANY friggin’ clue about what it’s like to be poor in a third world country? When you’re poor, really poor, truly poor, YOU DON’T FUCKING HAVE ANY ELECTRICAL POWER. If a hand crank is the best you can get, you’ll use it! The guy is so friggin’ clueless I’m shocked.
And why do these dirt poor people need the “full functionality of a PC”?! My dad uses an ancient 550MHz PIII. It suits him perfectly. Are these poor people suddenly going to start buying DV cameras and editing movies?! Playing Grand Theft Auto?! Like I said, this guy is fucking retarded!
The device will fail. There is no way it’ll succeed. I’m just saying that this Barrett character is an idiot.
Why did they bother. Hell you can get a decient Laptop for $500 new. three for four years from now I bet he price will come close to what these jokers were gonna sell their toy for.
I actually think that the concept is mostly correct and that the main obstacles would be in a way to distribute these to the people who want/need them.
Lesser problem is the perception of the developed world that this is not useful. I hope MIT ignores that part …
What people in the developed world (and even in a bit less developed world) do not get is the level of poverty and the need for “knowledge-tools”. I am coming from the country just under “a bit less developed” level and can tell you that the University Professor is lucky if he earns 200$ a month. Nevermind students or their families. Latter would likely save 100$ for a computer, but not much more (and those 100$ are equal to an American family spending 5000$ on a PC…).
In African regions, I’d suspect even worst situation and the total dependence on (not so rich) non-govermental organization to get this tool.
In the same time, there are many very capable people who would make a lot from this seemingly (to the developed) bare-bones gadget.
I hope the project goes through.
I hope they do not get entangled with the goverments (that is the way they will fail).
My solution would be direct sales to “better-off-poor” and all other dealings only through the well established NGO’s…
Dusan Maletic
Isn’t this the case with most of the idealistic pipe dreams that come from people with too much time on their hands? I hope no tax dollars were wasted on this nonsense.
In the book the “The Ingenuity Gap” the author points out that Mr. Negroponte is naive in his understanding of what the third & developing world needs. Many of these societies need to be boot strapped out of the stone age, which is impossible unless you reform corrupt governments, educate women, create sustainable economies, get clean water etc….
I think Mr Gates has a better answer by donating money to curing malaria, rather than give out happy meal toys.
Maybe the UN can fill the $100 laptops with condoms and pamphlets on how to prevent the spread of AIDS and actually make a difference.
used laptops hundreds of times more useful and powerful can be bought in bulk for about a hundred bucks each. People are already doing this. All this would do is add to that existing market. The poor need food, blankets, medical care, education, and the chance for work at a safe job. that hasn’t changed for thousands of years. A computer training center would do more than a cheap crank power laptop. And even that would come after everybody is healthy and fed.
About 10 years ago, the Wall Street Journal wrote than Mr. Negroponte’s Media Lab had never produced anything useful, with the then new Lego MindStorms being the first good item.
Academics serve a useful purpose in society – distibuting knowledge, instilling ambition, investigating every alternative, promoting the most laudable goals. However, they produce few products.
If they did – they would realize that:
1. $100 bill of materials cost is not the same as retail price.
2. To this one must add cost of manuafacture and test
3. Features like warranty, service training and support are real costs
4. The dynamics of industry do not often simply follow the best idea
5. Customers never bought a product based on laudable objectives
6. Distribution can be 1/3 of the retail cost
7. Real markups are typically 2 or 3 times the Bill of Materials Cost by the time they reach the customer.
8. Anything with a wind up motor will have a high failure rate
9. A computer does not have to be a laptop to be useful
10. Walmart already sells a sub $200 Linux machine
However – we should all applaud their efforts to narrow the digital divide. They are just going about it in a naive way.
Something tells me the vendor that manages to incorporate a workable crank-to-recharge feature into a portable form factor machine will gain a significant competitive advantage in virtually no time at all.
And as far as Intel’s contention that the poor don’t want a $100 laptop, who says the poor would be the only potential consumers of such a device? IT managers who choose to ignore this evolution are doing so at their peril: tomorrow’s low-end box may not be lime-green in color, but the MIT unit is a harbinger of things to come.
Help me out Carmi
A crank ?- I just don’t get it ??
Solar or wind power for remote areas yes – but not a crank
the failure rate is way too high for the application
and there is scant market – consider what the words sound like”
Something tells me the vendor that manages to incorporate a workable crank-to-start feature into an automobile will gain a significant competitive advantage in virtually no time at all.
a competitive advantage over electric starters in cars perhaps?
substitute “phonograph” or “alarm clock” for “automobile”
same result
Ask yourself
How many crank-up radios do you own?
Do you buy batteries or use linecords for appliances instead?
Where would you get a crank-up radio fixed?
If there is a solution for narrowing the digital divide for emerging economies, it will have to offer everyone involved a profit. That is how business works. Once there is a mass following, then economies of scale and competition enable a low cost solution.
Jasontheodd is on the right track – millions of used PCs would have a better place in emerging economies than the landfill.
And exactly what are these computers going to be used for? Browsing the Web? I’m sure that there is a huge repository of information in Swahili. Downloading music? Sending text messages? Email? Skype?
Without a decent Internet connection, a computer is a pretty limited tool, specially at the levels that this is adressing (largely illiterate communities in third world countries.)
This is an utterly irrelevant tool unless the infrastructure is available to connect it to the world. Think about it… no IP connection, what do you do… spreadsheets and power memos?