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

[paranode]

Hey as long as it runs Linux, the children of the world can play Nethack. It brings a tear to my eye.

Oh, what a surprise!

[Lord Byron II]

The CEO of the company that makes product A, when he finds out that product B will be sold for much less than his, says that product B is no good. What a surprise!

Next week: Bill Gates denounces its operating system.

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.

Undesired if you used a Pentium 4

[GeoffSmith1981]

Maybe Intel is just jealous because to hand-crank power a Pentium 4 laptop would take you a few hours.

missing the point

[joe 155]

I thought the whole point of these laptops was for people in far poorer countries who could not possibly hope to afford anything remotely as good as these anyway... I can hardly see people living in Brazilean shanty-towns saying "this laptop can't hash files fast enough"... Besides I'd buy one just because they sound impossible to destroy and it would be good to take to uni and have kicking around in my bag; I'd only need notepad anyway.

I'll buy one.

[MikeFM]

If they're as good as they sound then I'd buy one. I think laptops today are rather stupid. To slow to do anything demanding power and yet hot, noisy, and power hungry. I'd rather have something light, quiet, with a long battery life that does the basics I need - web, email, im, ssh, light word processing, and light image manipulation. I'll be surprised if the $100 laptop can't handle those and more.

limited range of programs

[7macaw]

You can only get finite-sized memory for $200 and therefore the range of programs is limited. For $2000 the amount of memory you get is... oh wait

Duh, of course...

[metlin]

Of course, Intel is going to say that.

Quite obviously, when you are going to be selling an entire computer at the price of their processors and motherboards, they're going to be pissed.

Sure, I could use a dual athlon if I'm running the latest game or doing some serious number crunching - but for a user in an developing country with limited funds, the choice is definitely beneficial.

Today's computers have a lot of crap that most users don't use - but they have them anyway. The idea of a computer is to be a tool - give those people a simple, straightforward system that a user can truly use in doing their job, and you'd have gone far.

Of course, given the choice, companies like Intel would sell a $500 processor to a poor man who'd have no use for it. But that doesn't mean the idea itself is flawed. If anything, it's a nice way to help bring technology to the needy, and give them a chance.

I've seen the use of some of these technologies (MIT's Michael Best does some work on e-development -- they've some really nice work) - and they truly are helpful. Just because it doesn't help Intel's bottom penny doesn't mean it's useless. Given time, I'm fairly certain that it would be proven so.

From the FAQ

[rhoder]

http://laptop.media.mit.edu/faq.html

WiFi-enabled
"USB ports galore".
Its current specifications are: 500MHz, 1GB, 1 Megapixel.

Re:There's probably some truth to this

[Hosiah]

I'm all for giving poor and developing nations access to this kind of technology but the fact remains that there are more pressing needs for these folks.

Well, MIT doesn't grow corn. They don't research AIDS cures. Other people are doing these things. MIT is helping the best way MIT can. MIT helps by building you a computer.

Amazing...MIT would be drawing 100% less criticism right now if they'd simply sat on their hands and done *nothing*. Why is it to get rotten egged off the podium in this world, all you have to do is volunteer to help?

Re:There's probably some truth to this

[udderly]

The easiest things in the world to be are a critic and a cynic, and yet many of us wear it like it's a badge of honor.