Thursday, February 9

$100 laptop

Nicholas Negroponte's vision for $100 laptop for every child in poor countries has stirred quiet a debate with Bill Gates/Microsoft, Craig Barrett/Intel expressing apprehensions and suggesting alternatives. Others too have chimed in with articulate arguments against the project, yet we do not see equally well articulated arguments in favour addressing the above concerns.

A look at the principals involved in the project gives some inkling why this may be so. Each one is a tech guru/star and for them collectively, an $100 laptop is an interesting technical problem to be solved whose success will not be measured in through effective market adoption and successful usage, but in just having achieved what they set out to do: make a laptop for which governments will pay atleast $100. Maybe the innovative approaches & technologies is something to look forward for, hopefully could even push industry in the right direction: simpler & cheaper.

No comments: