0

By David Rothman

Third World children with laptops“…a household in Canada was 131 times more likely to own a personal computer than one in Indonesia–hardly the world’s least tech-oriented country.” – eSchool News summing up an IDC reseach survey (reg. required).

The TeleRead take: Imagine the potential market out there for e-books–both content and machines. That’s why MIT’s $100-laptop project, topic of the eSchool article and earlier TeleBlog comments, could mean so much to e-bookdom. Of course, the key is to keep costs down and usability up. The Tower of eBabel and expensive DRM could rain on this parade if the industry doesn’t turn itself around. Remember, the machines will use linux, which can’t work with software such as Microsoft Reader, thanks to the Windowscentric mindset.

Disclaimer: TeleRead is not part of the MIT project. Meanwhile click here for a list of other TeleBlog articles on the project.

 
0