PCs for the poor: Ultimate solution or scam of the century?
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At the 2005 World Economic Forum in Switzerland a soft-spoken academic made an announcement that sent seismic waves across the computer industry. Nicholas Negroponte, then director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, spoke of making laptops available at US$100 for schoolchildren in developing nations.
The price was not the only big news. Negroponte named companies that had agreed to collaborate on what would become the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. Notably, the list did not include Microsoft and Intel, the world's largest software and microchip manufacturers, respectively. Instead, the laptop would use a processor from Advanced Micro Devices and an operating system based on Linux, whose code is freely available for anyone to modify and distribute. The technology race A cascade of announcements followed. In November 2005, Negroponte demonstrated the first prototype at the UN's World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia. Microsoft soon responded. At the January 2006 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, United States, Bill Gates unveiled his company's answer: a prototype cellphone that could be turned into a computer by connecting it to a TV and keyboard. Microsoft touted its Cellular PC as a cheaper and more practical alternative, since it relied on components already in use. Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer told The New York Times, "everyone is going to have a cellphone … in places where TVs are already common, turning a phone into a computer could simply require adding a cheap adaptor and keyboard." In February, leading Taiwanese microchip manufacturer Via showed off prototypes it has developed for its PC-1 initiative, which aims to enable a billion people to connect to the Internet using cheap and energy-efficient notebook and desktop computers. Then in May, Intel's chief executive officer Paul Otellini launched his company's foray into the low-cost computing arena with EduWise, a US$330-400 'education notebook PC' aimed at developing nations. Intel spokesperson Mike Green says EduWise has an advantage over the OLPC laptop in that it can accommodate more standard software and tools. Its hardware will be almost identical to that of regular computers. Moreover, it will use Microsoft's Windows operating system, which runs about 90 per cent of the world's personal computers and is compatible with more software applications than most other operating systems. Negroponte's US$100 laptop, with its trimmed-down hardware, has drawn criticism from Otellini. "We do not think you [can] cross the digital divide with old technology," he told The New York Times in May. "[EduWise] doesn't need exotic technology and it runs real applications." These are not the first attempts to provide affordable computing for the poor. Back in 2003, Advanced Micro Devices introduced its Personal Internet Communicator, a relatively cheap box that could be used to access the Internet when it was connected to a screen and a keyboard. But it couldn't be used as a word processor, and it cost US$400 — both major weaknesses. The company ended up pulling the plug and partnering with Negroponte instead. Source: Scidev More |
User comments
"energy use"Author:
John Kintree
Time: 18.08.2006 22:18
Comment: One of the most shocking things about the OLPC computer is the power requirement of 2 watts while being used. That is one fourth the power used by the Simputer. While the OLPC computer is not operating, it drops back to 0.5 watts so it can continue to function as a router in a mesh wireless network. This is extremely advanced technology. This will not only be great for children, it would make sense for many of the more than one billion current PC users to trade in and recycle their old systems for something like this.
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"The full article is quite in-depth"Author:
wayan vota
Time: 18.08.2006 20:53
Comment: And reading it will give you a solid backgound of the emerging markets technology options. For OLPC-specific information, try OLPC News http://www.olpcnews.com
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""Scam of the century"?!!"Author:
termside termside
Time: 18.08.2006 12:49
Comment: Thank you, but I don't think we are interested in what either Microsoft or Intel has to say about the One Laptop Per Child project. I wonder how much they paid you for this article.
... again, "scam of the century"?!! |
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