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

Gee, ya think?

[Otter]

A loudly-publicized, world-transforming project from the MIT Media Lab turns out to be a lot of hot air? Gee, what were the chances?

Unsurprising

[Gonoff]

So manufacturers are not 100% enthusiastic about this idea? Well what a surprise!

If the third world gets $100 laptops using open source software, this will be really bad news for harware manufacturers and the end of the road for many closed source software manufacturers.

If tens of millions of those things go there, they will end up in the developed world as well - and they won't help the bottom lines of the rich companies.

Of course there are difficulties. What do all the trainers with their suits and powerpoint keep telling us? "There are no problems - only oportunities!"

Laptop bidders say it is too difficult eh?

[WickedLogic]

Never let the person who says it is impossible, stop the person who is actually doing it.

Re:Why the Obsession with Third World Countries?

[Spirckle]

Posts like this worry me (wory me about the poster); it signals a deep lack of appreciation for how important information is to changing lives and conditions. Have you never had a physical symptom which you looked up on the internet to figure out how worried you should be. Maybe even information like, hmmm diahrea and general wasting away. Might be cholera, BOIL THE WATER you drink. How about when you needed help or information? Ever found it through a well placed email? There is nothing to say that medical services AND laptops cannot be provided to the same people. In fact it is MORE likely that appropriate medical services will find its way there if the people who need it have access to communication devices more advanced than bongo drums.

Evidence that this will help?

[G4from128k]

I don't mean to troll, but I wonder if Negreponte and crew have any experimental evidence that these laptops will actually help. Have they done any studies in which they gave laptops (of any price) to one set of villages and didn't give laptops to some similar set of other villages? Given the contentious issue of whether computers really help in U.S. classrooms, I wonder if they will help in developing nations.

Rational (i.e. non-empirical) arguments for the plausibility of improvement are not sufficient. For example I saw very nice properly randomized study about giving textbooks to African school children. Children with textbooks did no better than children without textbooks. That is to say, textbooks were a waste of money. The failure was ascribed to the textbooks use of English, but who knows if that was really the cause.

On the other hand, I can see a higher chance of positve change by providing laptops for farmers and small businesses -- especially if the laptops provide access to market data, aid management, or foster B2B commerce. Improving the productivity of small farms, factories, and distributors would raise wages and living standards. This has clearly occurred in the developed world although it takes decades for businesses to really change their processes to get the most out of computers. Helping 3rd-world businesses may not have the same level of charitable karma as aiding school children, but it might provide a greater reduction in poverty.

It would be very sad to see this effort fail because of unfounded assumptions about the impact of laptops on school children.

Re:Why the Obsession with Third World Countries?

[david.given]

Also, and I don't mean to be a sourpuss, but wouldn't it be more useful to provide certain other things to third world countries, such as medical care ?

Because if you pay for medical care you get medical care. But if you pay for information, you get everything.

People in third-world countries aren't idiots, you know. In fact, there's a good chance that they're smarter than you are; they're certainly going to be better at exploiting opportunities, because they have to in order to survive. And if you ask them what they want, then you'll find that the vast majority of the time is that once they've reached basic subsistence, then what they really want is education and communication. They don't want people to do things for them. They want to learn how to do things for themselves.

I don't entire agree that laptops are the best way of doing it, but setting up a basic IT infrastructure is an entirely logical step in the right direction. Take a look at the way mass access to the 'net has changed the western world. Now imagine what that could do for a people who were actually focused on achievement and getting things done, rather than the mental masturbation that we're so keen on.

Would these $100 laptops help? Well, perhaps. A standardised platform with automatic mesh networking that can do store-and-forward email and low-power applications could be extremely useful, but first you'd have to build enough of them to get the infrastructure in place and enough of them in use to build momentum and acceptance. They're the kind of thing that would only be useful if everyone had one --- this is what killed the Cybiko, for example.

(Incidentally, I would buy one --- a simple, portable, useful computer that I don't have to worry too much about breaking would be fantastically useful for me. Particularly if it was an open platform!)

Are there any actual locals here who want to comment?

Dupe Protection v0.3

[hagrin]

We've previously discussed this story.

If I were the Slashdot editors, for dupe protection sake, I would add this statement at the end of every submission.

Assistance considered harmful.

[hummassa]

If you give a man a fish, he'll have food for a day...

The third world does not really need (*) the kind of assistance that the rich countries offer most of the time (food and medicine).
The third world does need:

1. technology (vide my first phrase above)
2. fair trade

Yeah, basically, that's it. And yes, I do live in a 3rd world country. My father comes from a really poor rural area, and both his sons to college, and me an my brother are sort of living the (South) American Dream.

(*) except in the most emergencial cases, of course.

Re:Why the Obsession with Third World Countries?

[zulux]

I give to third-world causes for several reasons:

  1) More bang for the buck - $100 goes further in Sudan than it does in Appalachia.
  2) Need. People in Sudan face war, Aids, typhoid, and rape. Appalachians are born into the easiet country in the world to live, so I tend to take a dim view of people that don't seize the oppertunity. 80% of world would switch places with the Appalachians and count themselves blessed.