Let me share with my experience with India, then you have some ideas whether selling laptops to people there make any sense.
I lived in Mumbai, India for two months doing humantarian work as a health care worker there in both the city and villages. In the city, internet cafe is quite accessible and affortable. You pay about $0.5 USD to surf the internet on an ancient window 95 computer for an hour, but of course, dont expect a constant, speedy connection like in United States here. Few people do have mobile phones and I was a little surprised to see my taxi driver wearing a bluetooth headset for his mobile, as he picked me up from the airport. However, you do see LOTS of people living on the street. Seeing people showering, cooking, and dining literally on the highway are very common. Cows, dogs, goats are everywhere, and they have no problem whatsoever with cows crossing the highway at all.
It is, however, a little different in the village, which is just three hours away from Mumbai. Buildings / homes are made of hay. Mangoes trees are everywhere, and they get their water from wells. Electricy is available, but only for half a day. People there do not speak english at all, so I do need some help when I obtain medical history from my patients. I asked my friend to write out all those questions down in Hindi so I can just point to a piece of paper. I thought that was a smart idea, but guess what? Not only do they not know how to read those questions in their own language, they do not even know how to write their name in hindi !
Now do you think it will work if you give them laptops for $100 USD? First of all, $100 USD may not be a lot to us, but that's huge amount of money to them. Let me give you some numbers: a typical meal cost about 50 Rupees (1 USD = 50 Rupee), and it cost 1000+ Rupees for a room in a hotel. Of course, it is impressive to build a computer in $100, but for those people in the village, that is totally not affortable. I heard they will have to starve for a day in order to hop onto a train to go to the city for medical care. Second, when people do not even know how to write their name, how do they use a computer?
Nevertheless, I was quite impressed by a local program organized by a NGO. What they do is that they loaded a dozen old used computers on a bus, and they came by every week. Kids will then hop onto the bus, learn how to use computers. By the end of the day, after the kids go back to their home, the bus will drive to another village. I thought that was indeed very good idea, and that's quite an effective way to bring technology to these people.
In a way, I don't see computer are that important. You can actually learn a lot from books. Having a computer is just a luxury. Instead, spending money on electricity, basic medical care, and education (so they can at least now how to write their name) is a much better idea.
Slashdot Mirror
Let me share with my experience with India, then you have some ideas whether selling laptops to people there make any sense. I lived in Mumbai, India for two months doing humantarian work as a health care worker there in both the city and villages. In the city, internet cafe is quite accessible and affortable. You pay about $0.5 USD to surf the internet on an ancient window 95 computer for an hour, but of course, dont expect a constant, speedy connection like in United States here. Few people do have mobile phones and I was a little surprised to see my taxi driver wearing a bluetooth headset for his mobile, as he picked me up from the airport. However, you do see LOTS of people living on the street. Seeing people showering, cooking, and dining literally on the highway are very common. Cows, dogs, goats are everywhere, and they have no problem whatsoever with cows crossing the highway at all. It is, however, a little different in the village, which is just three hours away from Mumbai. Buildings / homes are made of hay. Mangoes trees are everywhere, and they get their water from wells. Electricy is available, but only for half a day. People there do not speak english at all, so I do need some help when I obtain medical history from my patients. I asked my friend to write out all those questions down in Hindi so I can just point to a piece of paper. I thought that was a smart idea, but guess what? Not only do they not know how to read those questions in their own language, they do not even know how to write their name in hindi ! Now do you think it will work if you give them laptops for $100 USD? First of all, $100 USD may not be a lot to us, but that's huge amount of money to them. Let me give you some numbers: a typical meal cost about 50 Rupees (1 USD = 50 Rupee), and it cost 1000+ Rupees for a room in a hotel. Of course, it is impressive to build a computer in $100, but for those people in the village, that is totally not affortable. I heard they will have to starve for a day in order to hop onto a train to go to the city for medical care. Second, when people do not even know how to write their name, how do they use a computer? Nevertheless, I was quite impressed by a local program organized by a NGO. What they do is that they loaded a dozen old used computers on a bus, and they came by every week. Kids will then hop onto the bus, learn how to use computers. By the end of the day, after the kids go back to their home, the bus will drive to another village. I thought that was indeed very good idea, and that's quite an effective way to bring technology to these people. In a way, I don't see computer are that important. You can actually learn a lot from books. Having a computer is just a luxury. Instead, spending money on electricity, basic medical care, and education (so they can at least now how to write their name) is a much better idea.