Intel Calls $100 Laptops Undesired Gadgets

dolphinlover writes "Craig Barrett, Intel Corporation chairman believes that the $100 laptop computers to be manufactured by the MIT media lab run by Nicholas Negroponte beginning in early 2006 are merely 'gadgets', making them unattractive to consumers who will be disappointed by their 'limited range of programs'." From the article: "Negroponte said at their launch in November the new machines would be sold to governments for schoolchildren at $100 a device but the general public would have to pay around $200 -- still much cheaper than the machines using Intel's chips. But Barrett said similar schemes in the past elsewhere in the world had failed and users would not be satisfied with the new machine's limited range of programs."

Comments

Well if they accepted Apple's OS ...

[Billly Gates]

... then they would have a wide range of programs.

What a shame. I am tempted to write something about the gnu zealots influence but I dont want to be modded down. For those unaware Apple offered to write a special version of MacOSX and its programs for free but the MIT project turned them down because they were not free enough. Kind of odd since darwin is %100 opensource except for aqua.

Won't happen

[DogDude]

Really... do you REALLY think that a laptop can be produced that'll cost $100? Why are a bunch of techies going for this stupid idea hook, line, and sinker? Hell, the wholesale cost of even a very rudimentary laptop will exceed $100. Unless this group has invented a new hard drive that's a few dollars to build, or an LCD screen that's a few bucks, or any of the other parts this thing is supposed to have, this is absolutely impossible. And durable? You gotta be kidding me. This thing is supposed to be able to be dropped in mud or onto hard surfaces. A basic Toughbook is $1500.

I'd like for poor people (myself included) to be able to get a $1000 car or a $100 computer or a $10 refrigerator as much as the next guy, but there's reality and then there's fantasy. The $100 laptop, right now, most definitely falls squarely in the "fantasy" category.

Re:There's probably some truth to this

[westlake]

India had a programme to help fishermen be informed about storms and the like by having a special radio channel that broadcast such information. They gave all the fishermen free transistor radios and told them to use it - and guess what? Several lives were saved

We have 85 years experience in bringing radio broadcasting to remote communities using off-the-shelf technologies at a price they can afford.

What does this outsized and fragile hand-cranked PDA bring to the table?