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

Bah, Sayeth Scrooge

[ackthpt]

"Bah. Humbug!", Barrett was heard to say.

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.

Sounds like the Itanium, so I guess he should know.

"It turns out what people are looking for is something is something that has the full functionality of a PC," he said. "Reprogrammable to run all the applications of a grown up PC... not dependent on servers in the sky to deliver content and capability to them, not dependent for hand cranks for power."

Yeah and PDA and programmable cell phones would never sell.

He said Intel was also expanding an IT teacher training scheme it says has already reached three million schoolteachers worldwide to Sri Lanka, and praised local projects aimed at producing computer literacy. Some 90 percent of Sri Lankans were literate but only 10 percent computer literate, he said.

I think they call that the Save 10% off your next purchase of an Intel PC, forever locking you into our architecture plan.

i wonder if powerhungry processors and the electric generators necessary to power them are the actual root of global warming.

Re:Bah, Sayeth Scrooge

[Alien Being]

I disagree with that they'll only used for special purposes. So what if they have limited power? They're infinitely more powerful than what was available before.

When Tandy introduced the Model 100 with a z80 and about 32k ram, most people used them for the built in PDA, word processing and comms programs. But others found very unusual and creative ways to deploy them. In many ways, the fact that it was such a lightweight made it more valuable.

Good News

[Anonymous Coward]

Intel wouldn't make a hitch if it wouldn't feel at least a bit threatened by this gadget. So this might be good news for MIT people.

Intel is just...

[tradiuz]

Intel is just afraid that people will come to realise that you dont need a $500+ processor to surf the web, and you can get by just fine with 4 year old technology.

Oh really?

[iibbmm]

$200 for a laptop that I could slip into my backpack on a camping trip and not worry about battery life since I can hand crank it? Put me down for one. It would be perfect for logging camping trips, vacation abroad, ebooks on a plane, etc etc. So what if it's not the most powerfull thing in the world. Open source and the very nature of the product SCREAM oodles of programs and potential. I'm reminded why I haven't found myself removing the shrinkwrap from an intel box lately.

Re:Later he was overheard saying..

[Anne Thwacks]

Bill Gates never said that.

That is what you say. However, there was an mpeg of him saying it readily available from most OS/2 BBSes. I am sure someone has a copy.

Don't forget, when he said that, no one, not even Bill, could afford 640k. Early PCs shipped with 64k.

Before the PC, we bought computers with 4k! (Yeah, OK, that was words, because bytes were not invented, so 8K really.) I dont mean home computers, I mean machines like the PDP8, DG Nova, TI 990, HP 1000 and their many competitors. Really - the standard programming environment was "4k Fortran". AND the software that ran on those machines could PAY FOR THE MACHINE IN A WEEK!

Slightly later than the above senario (approx 1980), My mother (also a programmer) bought a house with 8 bedrooms in Islington (Where Tony Blair lives) for the same money my employers paid for a PDP11/60 with 1/2 MB of RAM, and two 40MB disk drives. (About the same power as a 386, but still able to support 12 users well.)