[DDN] Intel, $100 Laptop program form new partnership

[Joe Beckmann]

In the 19th and 20th century we called this kind of merger "in restraint of
trade," and made it illegal. The best way to lower the price is to watch
which prototype is now orphaned, and thereby drops its price to that $100
level.

And there is no magic whatsoever in a $100 laptop. It seemed un-feasible
when the average cost was $2000, not so long ago, but it's a lot more
feasible when orphaned equipment aims for landfill rather than user hands.
Anybody want my Newton? THAT was a $1000 laptop which is now worth dirt.

What the Intel/OLPC collaboration demonstrates most is the entrepreneurship
of profit and nonprofit sectors, and how often good ideas get "owned" by
entrepreneurs from either sector, or any country, and they are willing to
"sell out" to "get what they want." The nonprofit goal was NOT a $100
laptop, but One Laptop Per Child (ahem) and could/should/might be achieved
in any of many different ways. Remarkable how such goals pervert the
strategic options of their proponents: are we talking about merging
protestant with catholic computing? Or are we talking about merging islam
with christianity? My, how ideology makes business analogs so profoundly
uncomfortable.

j

On 7/13/07, Taran Rampersad <cnd at knowprose.com> wrote:
>
> tom abeles wrote:
> > And the price for the units are coming down so that OLPC and the
> > current smart phones will meet in the middle- not at the desired USD
> > 100. So we should stop, now, using the term, $100 lap top. I believe
> > current suggested price will be closer to $200 than $100 and even more
> > in inflation adjusted dollars.
> Agree with the 'options are better' comments - just kicking in here that
> the minimum order of a million is really the issue for me. Plus, if we
> consider the shifts in the global economy - is $100 US really a good
> target? How about let's try for 'affordable'... what I mean is that cost
> of living, etc, plus the relative value of the US dollar may increase or
> decrease. Since the machine(s) themselves aren't necessarily made in the
> US, this really makes this an interesting thing to look at economically.
> > But, and this is a big BUT, no one talks about the cost of access, the
> > main reason that the wireless providers practically give away their
> > phones. The connection costs are coming down, but they are constant
> > even if one owns the machines. And then there is the question of
> > service and support. This part of the package is never discussed and
> > yet it is the major life cycle expense to having one of these devices
> > and using them to greatest benefit.
> >
> > Perhaps it is time to stop slavering over the non-existent device and
> > its purported "cure" for the digital divide, like some miracle drug
> > and look at the systems cost and see who has worked that into their
> > development budgets.
> >
> > thoughts?
> I'm of two minds on all of this. Mobile phones have become more
> ubiquitous than Microsoft ever was (or ever will be). But mobile phones
> are not the solution either - access to hardware, except in very extreme
> cases, exists. This leads back to policy and infrastructure, which is
> where there have always been problems that have reinforced the hardware
> access problem. Now it is about service.
>
> So yes, the mobile phone has and will continue to demonstrate the most
> promise for leveling technological access. But no, it will not change
> service level disparity. One reason is economics, which can be fixed -
> some say it already is being fixed. But policy. Policy.
> Telecommunications service. A bunch of other stuff that technology
> hasn't been able to fix for the last millenium. :-)
>
> --
> Taran Rampersad
> Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago
> cnd at knowprose.com
> http://www.knowprose.com
>
>
> Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/
>
> "Criticize by creating." — Michelangelo
> "The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine." -
> Nikola Tesla
>
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-- 
Joe Beckmann
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