Laptop Makers Skeptical of $100 Laptop Schedule

coolgadget wrote to mention an article at DigitalTimes reporting that the production schedule MIT has laid out for the $100 laptop may be unrealistic. From the article: "Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, and Inventec, which are reportedly bidding to manufacture the world's cheapest notebook distributed to schools directly through large government initiatives, consider that meeting the volume shipment schedule for the US$100 notebook would be 'unlikely' given the current technical hurdles that need to be overcome ... The OLPC project will need huge support from governments to solve a variety of software and hardware problems including handwriting recognition, translation, and panel issues, all under a low-cost production budget, Taiwan notebook makers stated. Related components for the low-cost notebooks are still in the design stage, indicated the makers, noting that a 7.5-inch display sample for the US$100 model could be released by January of next year at the soonest." We've previously discussed this story.

Comments

Oh noes!

[antonymous]

The laptop might not be ready in January 2006? Haven't we already learned that if you start basing your actions upon "timetables" then the terrorists have already won?

Seriously though, it's a lofty goal, I honestly wouldn't expect to see this technology real soon, but it's good that someone is working on it.

And to preempt the coming "don't they need food, water, and medicine in the third world more than technology" debate, the answer is yes, the third world could really use those things. Unfortunately, no solution to these problems has been applied through conventional means (read: first world countries dictate "solutions" to the third world). And often the best solutions come out of the countries that live with the problem firsthand - why not give them access to knowledge and technology and see what they can do with it?

My POV

[http101]

If I were a spammer, I'd have thousands of new mass-mailing nodes with which to send mail.

If I were a hacker, thousands of different hops to baffle authorities on my wire-transfer scheme.

If I were a virus writer, I'd have that many more infectuous terminals bouncing viruses to a plethora of networks.

If I were a malicious code author, I'd have an army of darkness composed of all your zombified laptops.

Not to mention the amount of support we'd have to give these people when the damned things break. Since most of these people don't even own a car, they have no idea what 'maintenance' is. They'll assume they can use it as a chopping block, doorstop, an object to level a rocking couch, or perhaps just throw it on a pile of old magazines and hope for the best as one of their cats pees on it. The laptop may be $100 or less, but what about that $100 hard drive replacement? Maintaining these machines will be more of a pain than building them. Do you expect people of third-world countries to be perfect computer users? HA! PIBCAK! "Oh, your keyboard won't function? That's $129.99 to repair, but free, under the warranty that just ran out this morning." While we're at it, let's give Corvette keys to chimps. Some would say Chevy drivers ARE chimps...

Bring on the flamebait!