The $100 Laptop Hopes For Thailand Sales

[george]

The $100 laptop hopes for Thailand sales

SAN FRANCISCO: -- A 100-dollar laptop, meant to help poor children around the world tap into the power of technology, has taken another step toward reality after the first prototype was presented to a United Nations Internet conference in Tunis.

The brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte, who heads the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the bright green laptop, which has a windup key for power, still has no buyers or even manufacturers onboard.

[Mr Negroponte hopes governments will buy millions of the computers and give one to each child. He talked last year with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who expressed enthusiasm, and Mr Negroponte regularly lists Thailand among expected buyers. However, Mr Thaksin has since announced a plan for the government to finance students to assemble desktop computers in schools, and has not mentioned the laptops again.]

[Wired magazine, reporting from the Tunis conference this morning, said the machine is expected to start mass production late next year, and quoted Mr Negroponte as stating once again that the governments of Thailand and Brazil have already said they're serious about placing $1 million orders for their school kids.]

That didn't stop U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan from gushing about the project in his opening address to the conference.

"The true meaning of one laptop per child is not a matter of just giving a laptop to a child, as if bestowing on them some magic charm," he said. "The magic lies within. Within each child there is a scientist, scholar or just plain citizen in the making. This initiative is designed to bring it forth into the light of day."

The reaction has been just as enthusiastic in Silicon Valley. Negroponte has been making significant progress behind the scenes in the California computer haven, lining up some of the tech world's most powerful players in support of what could be a landmark effort.

Companies like web search leader Google and chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices have pitched in both advice and financial contributions of 2 million dollars apiece.

Tech legends like Microsoft's Bill Gates, Apple Computer's Steve Jobs and computer-maker Dell's Michael Dell have also put their resources at the disposal of Negroponte's nonprofit organization, One Laptop Per Child. Dell, for instance, has told his component buyers to help Negroponte make sure that he gets the parts for his revolutionary machines for the cheapest possible price.

Altruism is no doubt part of the equation.

Gates especially has devoted billions of dollars to improving living standards in Third World countries where people have been left behind by the technological and health revolutions of developed societies over the last 100 years.

But creating hundreds of millions of technologically literate world citizens also makes good business sense for technology companies, who are finding that many markets in the advanced world are fast approaching saturation.

Negroponte's machine represents the most ambitious hardware effort to date to bridge the digital divide.

No logo for the initiative has yet been released, but designers could do worse than adopting as their symbol the bright yellow hand- crank that protrudes from the side of the laptop. This throwback to the days of the gramophone is designed to enable users to manually crank up electricity to run the laptop in places with irregular or non-existent access to the fixed electric power grid.

Other features of the laptop include a pliable rubber casing, designed to make the units virtually indestructible, and a flash- based drive instead of the more expensive conventional hard drives, whose moving parts are more susceptible to damage.

The laptop's alternating-current power cord doubles as a carrying strap, while the versatile hinged design of the screen will allow the computer to be used as a writing tablet or electronic book. The display also utilizes a new technology developed by an MIT colleague of Negroponte's that should allow the screens to be manufactured for under 35 dollars each. Another bonus of the screen: it will shift from full colour to glare-resistant black and white for outdoor reading.

The computers will also include wi-fi connectivity and form "mesh" networks in which each laptop would relay data to and from other devices, reducing the need for expensive base stations.

The computers will feature 500-megahertz processors made by Advanced Micro Devices. While no official announcement has been made about the operating system, Negroponte is understood to have rejected offers from both Microsoft and Apple to use their operating systems in favour of the open-source Linux operating system, allowing designers, administrators and users to customize the workings of the computers.

Five companies are reported to be bidding to manufacture the laptops, with the production of 5 million to 10 million units due to start next year. Negroponte said that a commercial version may be available at a higher price to subsidize machines provided to children in poor countries.

--Bangkok Post/DPA 2005-11-18

[cdnvic]

If this goes ahead it could be great news for open source users who are wanting a broader array of software available.

cv

[stumonster]

here is a link to the MIT webpage with further information

http://laptop.media.mit.edu/

though realistically roll out is probably a year away

[solo siam]

Is it really a realistic idea to give each and every child in the world a computer, why not try for each and every school first.

[astral]

A laptop is generally the most expensive computer,

relatively difficult to repair

difficult to upgrade.

A compact desk top would be a much better idea.

Anyway poor children need food, medicine and schooling before computers!!

Edited November 18, 2005 by astral

[cgigate]

I need $100 laptop too!

[womble]

A laptop is generally the most expensive computer,

relatively difficult to repair

difficult to upgrade.

A compact desk top would be a much better idea.

Anyway poor children need food, medicine and schooling before computers!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It isn't the designer/inventors job to provide food, he is creating a wort while product that certainly has a market, this invention is one of the greatest gifts to modern education.

There are many kids who don't need food or medicine, but a cheap laptop would be very helpful to their eductation. Thailand aswell as many other developing nations have no serious problems with food, water and sanitation, they do however suffer from a poor education.

So whilst there are some childeren who could no doubt benefit from other essentials first, that doesn't mean there arn't millions of childeren who won't gain from having one of these.

Edited November 18, 2005 by womble

[uhuh]

A laptop is generally the most expensive computer,

relatively difficult to repair

difficult to upgrade.

A compact desk top would be a much better idea.

Anyway poor children need food, medicine and schooling before computers!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It isn't the designer/inventors job to provide food, he is creating a wort while product that certainly has a market, this invention is one of the greatest gifts to modern education.

There are many kids who don't need food or medicine, but a cheap laptop would be very helpful to their eductation. Thailand aswell as many other developing nations have no serious problems with food, water and sanitation, they do however suffer from a poor education.

So whilst there are some childeren who could no doubt benefit from other essentials first, that doesn't mean there arn't millions of childeren who won't gain from having one of these.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know where you get this weird idea from that computers have anything to do with education?

Next to TV, they are a device to empty your brains of any content if there ever was one.

As every Thai kid can tell you, a computer is a machine to play games. Oh, you can use it for chat, too, chat with your friends or try to make some money from farangs through chat.

There is this "educational" cheap (for Thais - double pricing) government computer center at World Trade - and last week the English newspaper run an article about how they only use it for games.

I guess the nerds at MIT feel uncomfortable with the living proof that there is life outside the screen.

Edited November 18, 2005 by uhuh

[johna]

The education system is bust and at the moment adrift, 100$ spent on teacher training and a computer lab in each school would be money better spent.

[Johpa]

I don't know where you get this weird idea from that computers have anything to do with education?

Next to TV, they are a device to empty your brains of any content if there ever was one.

I think this all began when Steve Jobs sold the US government a bill of goods when he noticed he could donate Apple Computers to schools in exchange for tax credits that were worth more than the computers. Ever since, corporations have been selling "technology" to gullible school district officials for outrageously high profits or ridiculous tax credits. Of course then mom and dad have to buy little Junior a machine to do his homework.

And now not only has the educational establishment confused information with knowledge (and don't you think those teachers didn't enjoy their free machines with which to peruse Interent porn) but they have forgotten what constitutes knowledge in the first place. If you want to see a good critique of computers in the schools read Todd Oppenheimer's The Flickering Mind.

[TizMe]

$100 is still more than a months wage for some.

I don't think that many will end up in the hands of the poor.

There is too much corruption in 3rd world countries and some enterprising businessmen will find a way to divert the PCs to people that should not be receiving them.

[womble]

A laptop is generally the most expensive computer,

relatively difficult to repair

difficult to upgrade.

A compact desk top would be a much better idea.

Anyway poor children need food, medicine and schooling before computers!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It isn't the designer/inventors job to provide food, he is creating a wort while product that certainly has a market, this invention is one of the greatest gifts to modern education.

There are many kids who don't need food or medicine, but a cheap laptop would be very helpful to their eductation. Thailand aswell as many other developing nations have no serious problems with food, water and sanitation, they do however suffer from a poor education.

So whilst there are some childeren who could no doubt benefit from other essentials first, that doesn't mean there arn't millions of childeren who won't gain from having one of these.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know where you get this weird idea from that computers have anything to do with education?

Next to TV, they are a device to empty your brains of any content if there ever was one.

As every Thai kid can tell you, a computer is a machine to play games. Oh, you can use it for chat, too, chat with your friends or try to make some money from farangs through chat.

There is this "educational" cheap (for Thais - double pricing) government computer center at World Trade - and last week the English newspaper run an article about how they only use it for games.

I guess the nerds at MIT feel uncomfortable with the living proof that there is life outside the screen.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Absolute crap. Tv's and computers can be great tools for prividing information, all depends what you are using them for.

Same as books, some books are educational whilst others are not.

Using a computer for computer aided design, photoshop, illustrator is without doubt educational, playing games is not.

The key is to ensure computers are used with the correct applications.

Never write of a technology just because it can be obused, in the right hands with the right tutor they can be most useful.

Get out of the dark ages!

[fxm88]

There is too much corruption in 3rd world countries and some enterprising businessmen will find a way to divert the PCs to people that should not be receiving them.

You mean you think these guys are smart enough to put together a $100 laptop and not smart enough to consider the corruption in their target market? Clearly you have yet to see the thing! It is truly a computer that only a child could love. Can you imagine Mr. Businessman sitting in the Thonglor Starbucks sipping his latte while typing away on this?