The point behind this and the OLPC is that not everybody can afford a 400-500$ laptop, especially in third world nations where the currency conversion itself is horrific. It might not seem like a 100 bucks is all that much when already spending 300$, but for some people, it really is.
The original idea behind these was to somehow sell them under 200, I believe. That would've made much more sense and might actually have been practically implemented a lot more. Even so, when you consider nations buying them in bulk, a 100$ difference on each laptop adds up to a lot. I'm guessing there aren't gonna be subsidies on it because of bulk orders, considering it's already supposed to be a "cheap" product.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rohit Kapur @ Oct 27th 2006 12:51PM
The point behind this and the OLPC is that not everybody can afford a 400-500$ laptop, especially in third world nations where the currency conversion itself is horrific. It might not seem like a 100 bucks is all that much when already spending 300$, but for some people, it really is.
The original idea behind these was to somehow sell them under 200, I believe. That would've made much more sense and might actually have been practically implemented a lot more. Even so, when you consider nations buying them in bulk, a 100$ difference on each laptop adds up to a lot. I'm guessing there aren't gonna be subsidies on it because of bulk orders, considering it's already supposed to be a "cheap" product.