OLPC Manufacturer to Sell $200 Laptop On Open Market

srinravi writes "ArsTechnica reports that Quanta, the company manufacturing the XO laptops, has plans to begin selling low-cost budget mobile computers for $200 later this year. 'According to Quanta president Michael Wang, the company plans to leverage the underlying technologies associated with OLPC's XO laptop to produce laptop computers that are significantly less expensive than conventional laptops.' While OLPC plans to sell the laptops in bulk to governments, which will then distribute the hardware to school children, the XO computer itself is not for sale on the open market. These XO-like commercial devices are still something of an unknown, but it has been announced they'll be using Open Source software."

Comments

They are very insistent on NOT releasing it?

[sethstorm]

For such a device, they sure are wanting to not release it - when that could be a good way to fund such devices. Is there some sort of problem with quality at that kind of mass amount?

Re:They are very insistent on NOT releasing it?

[siriuskase]

Marketing costs, distribution costs, etc.

While they may have figured out how to market and distribute to the governments that are their primary customers, they may not want to deal with the private market for some reason. Smaller purchase quantities comes to mind. But, you'd think they could hire someone else to market and distribute.

Like you suggest, it might be that the product wouldn't hold up too well under the scrutiny of knowledgeable customers in a competitive marketplace. The original product is intended for people who know nothing about compuerts and don't know anyone else who knows anything about computers.

Re:They are very insistent on NOT releasing it?

[Anonymous Coward]

The same thing that Internet appliances did to the desktop market. 90% of all people use their PC for web and email. Yet internet appliances are so hated they all failed miserably.

Re:They are very insistent on NOT releasing it?

[CastrTroy]

That's because they usually either come with a monthly service fee or cost as much as a real computer. Sell someone an internet appliance that's significantly cheaper than a computer, and doesn't have a monthly fee, and I think you'll be able to see quite a few units. I would love a laptop that only cost $200. That's cheaper than most PDAs you see on the market now.

Re:They are very insistent on NOT releasing it?

[suggsjc]

Ahh, I've got mod points that I want to use, but I just...can't...stop...typing.

Anyway, first marketing costs? There are people practically begging to get these devices...and even willing to pay more than the "targeted" cost of ~$100. So, if there was ever a case of a product selling itself, then this is it.

Distribution costs are understandable. But at the same time, they have been saying that they won't take orders of less than a million (isn't that right?). So, it isn't necessarily a supply problem...that is if they could actually meet those demands. So couple that with the above paragraph and it seems like there would be at least one millionaire out there that would see this enormous opportunity to snap up a million or so of these and resell for a handsome profit.

All of this makes me casually raise an eyebrow. There are a couple of floating thoughts. First, maybe they feel like this is a *special* project and so only *special* (read: people in 3rd world countries) should get them. Second, (which the parent mentioned) is that maybe they aren't as high quality as us *non-special* (read: spoiled developed nation brats) would demand, and therefore wouldn't even sell in the first place. Third, (my own little thought) is that there are some interesting politics happening behind closed doors.

To the first, I say "get off your high horse" sell them at a markup and re-invest your profits in something you deem worthwhile.
To the second, I say "don't knock it till you (or some other schmuck) tries it". There is practically no potential for loss here. If somebody wants to purchase 1 million units, take their money and run...after you give them the laptops that is.
To the third I say, well actually I have nothing to say since I have no idea is this is the case or what is being said behind those closed doors.

I hope this project succeeds just as much as the next (excluding Dell, HP, Intel, etc shareholders) person. But let's not count any chickens (or laptops) before they hatch.

Re:They are very insistent on NOT releasing it?

[couchslug]

It should not be crippled either, or it will end up among the Ipaq-tastic curiosities on the I-Appliance BBS:

http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/Ult raBoard.pl?Session=

I'll buy two with ONE requirement.

[Lumpy]

Mine come WITHOUT the hacking locks they have in place. I will want to replace their OS with something that is my own and the current iteration does not allow that.

Re:I'll buy two with ONE requirement.

[Maximum Prophet]

Well, yeah, I imagine, that would make the thing sell much better. A sub $200 laptop would be an excellent process control computer for simple things like temperature control, CNC, weather monitoring, etc. Having a standard, plug and play platform would be very useful. Even single board computers without monitors or power supplies can cost much more than $200.

They seem firm in their patronizing pity

[gelfling]

Yes I understand only goat farmers in Kenya are entitled to cheap usable hardware whereas poor people in the US are not. Moreover, middle class people in the US should be grateful at having to spend $2000 for a VistaBloat machine because, well that's the White Man's Burden.

What I don't understand is how they think this is going to get manufacturing efficiencies in volume working for them? I mean, couldn't they swallow their liberal guilt a little bit and at least charge Bwana $300? I think we'd be willing to do that. Because let's face reality here. I know of no school in the US that's going to gut their Windows infrastructure for these, no matter what they say about selling these units to governments to 'give' to schools.

Otherwise I guess we can go out and buy a bunch of old used laptops for $200-400 each and put Ubuntu on them and tell OLPC to got jump in the lake. At least here in the US where we don't have to worry about electricity and whatnot.

Re:They seem firm in their patronizing pity

[Lumpy]

Moreover, middle class people in the US should be grateful at having to spend $2000 for a VistaBloat machine because, well that's the White Man's Burden.

if you spend that much on a windows laptop then you sir are a foaming at the mouth moron. I bought a vista machine (and erased the OS as soon as I got it) for $699 this is a Dual core speed demon that plays doom3 nicely. I got it from a secret online store..... Dell.com

Re:They seem firm in their patronizing pity

[jamiethehutt]

Otherwise I guess we can go out and buy a bunch of old used laptops for $200-400 each and put Ubuntu on them and tell OLPC to got jump in the lake.

I want a OLPC. An old laptop will not be as compact, will not be as robust, will not have as much battery life, will not have a nippy solid state disk and will not have nearly as good a screen for reading on. The old laptop probably wont have wireless and probably wont have excellent linux support, in fact it's likely to have some compatibility problems. Also I think the OLPC, or at least the green one, looks pretty funky...

It's a pretty clear choice for me.

Re:Here's an idea

[Speare]

Of course they won't because a child without food or clean drinking water really gets a huge benefit out of a laptop or the support infrastructure to support it.

I know it might blow your mind, but there really are a lot of kids who live in areas that are somewhere BETWEEN the relative wealth levels of "must buy an iPod for my dog" and "must steal more cardboard for the roof". The XO isn't going to help a kid who can't lift her malnourished bones off the hardscrabble. The XO is going to help a kid who would have to travel 10mi to the nearest well-stocked library.

The cellphone has become a major boon for farmers in several countries-- they can call ahead and negotiate their crop's value before spending the resources to haul perishable product to an uninterested market. The XO may have other "game changing" advantages. It will only have the chance to make a difference if the rich people quit naysaying every last little nit based on their own shortsightedness.

Re:Distribution Control

[Maximum Prophet]

Mod parent up. He's absolutely right.

Allowing these to be sold by Amazon for $200, will disincentivize governments from buying them for $100 and trying to sell in bulk at a profit. If you know you can get a clean machine for $200 are you going to pay $100 + $n for a "dirty" machine? (where $n is large enough to make it worth their hassle)

Hmmm

[Anon-Admin]

I have watched the OLPC for some time. As time goes by, It seems like less of a deal. I just picked up a nice Compaq with a 15" wide screen, 512 meg of memory, 802.11 card etc. At Best Buy it was $350. By the time they get the OLPC out the door, normal low end laptops will be in the $200 range.

Re:PCs like cell phones?

[uab21]

The price of hardware has dropped enough that you can have a laptop, while previously it was a desktop. With modern software, the functional ability of the machines are the same compared to the less demanding software of the time. I call that a wash.

Why does everyone assume that all Google's dark fiber is for us? Google has rather large bandwidth requirements, which only get larger, and they are focused on grid type distributed processing for their business. That dark fiber could be there as their insurance against being held up by the backbone providers they have/will piss off. The market for bargain basement systems is small (how many internet appliances did you buy when they came out?), why should they risk it? Besides, the cell phone industry is the *last* industry I would like to emulate - Verizon gives me a free/reduced phone and then chips away at what it's capabilities are after the fact with software updates so that BitPim can't run - Yeah - Google needs to link themselves with that type of behavior in people's minds.

Re:Here's an idea

[Russ Nelson]

Of course they won't because a child without food or clean drinking water really gets a huge benefit out of a laptop

The government is already buying books for these kids, to the tune of about $20/year. Or not, in which case you can be sure they're NOT going to buy laptops. But if they are, then they convert the textbook into an ebook. Use of the laptop as an ebook pays for itself ... and then there's everything else you *might* do with it. Even if the teachers don't incorporate it into the curriculum, it's still worth doing.

Or are you suggesting that governments shouldn't provide a free education for their children? That's an idea worthy of consideration, but I suspect it's one you disagree with.

Re:Here's an idea

[rbanffy]

I can't quite understand why people insist in the misconception that these computers are for those who face terminal misery.

These computers are not for starving children. We have to reach those by other means. What they aim is to provide better education for less (printing and shipping good books is very expensive) so that more money can be used in some other projects like bringing food and water to populations in need, with the added bonus of a better educated population for what amounts to essentially no additional money spent.

I live in a third world country and I would have to drive (with my carbon-neutral ethanol-running car) about five hundred kilometers to be face to face with someone who has no access to food, water, basic healthcare or a decent social security network. And, even in the poorest parts of the country, most of those really do have access to these basic services, but nobody ever told them how to get them.

We have to deal with the most basic human problems with other tools. These computers are the tools governments will use to create the other tools, whatever shape they happen to take.

Re:Cost of distribution and sales

[Skreems]

The point of the OLPC project isn't just to train children to enter a technical workforce. It's to bring the benefits of digital technology to underdeveloped nations, presumably in the hopes that it will push a generation to learn and advance faster than they could otherwise.

Support costs

[tverbeek]

What about support costs? A small number of governments and NGOs are a lot less work to deal with than potentially tens of thousands of consumers.

Re:Thailand rejects the OLPC project

[Russ Nelson]

Are you kidding me?

I would ask "Are you stupid?" but you've proven it adequately. You're thinking about this COMPLETELY wrong. Don't think of it has a "laptop". Think of it as "electronic book" with keyboard, touchpad, wifi, camera, usb slots, microphone, speakers, 400MBytes of free storage for book, convenient carrying handle, day-and-night screen, oh, and it also runs Python and a word processor and games. If you look at it that way, and then compare it to the money they're ALREADY spending on schoolbooks, you'll find that it STARTS OFF by saving money. The laptop is free once you buy the electronic book.

If you want to be a real bleeding heart, think of the blind children who will have ON PAR access to the SAME TEXTBOOKS as their sighted peers. Think of the children!

If you compare it to a laptop, well, that's only your first mistake. You can only (and do, enthusiastically) go downhill from there.