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Next year’s $135 laptop will be $50 laptop by 2010, says Negroponte
April 4, 2006 | 4:37 pm
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By David Rothman
The One Laptop Per Child Project is on track, says founder Nicholas Negroponte–with the units starting out at at $135 next year, but reaching $50 by 2010.
Hah! $50 is what I’ve long said that e-book-friendly laptops could eventually cost. This will first happen via mass-purchases for the Third World, of course, rather than at your local discount store. By the way, the location of the crank you see in the drawing is now obsolete. More details from CNET:
The company dropped the hand crank mechanism that was present in some of its prototypes, including a bright-green machine it showed on Nov. 28, 2005, at the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society. The crank could stress the notebook’s chassis, Negroponte said. So OLPC added it to the power supply, instead. The power supply could use a crank or a mechanism such as a foot pedal, he said.
The dual-mode screen will be able to be read easily in bright sunlight and work indoors just as easily, he said, offering a 1,110-by-830-pixel resolution in black and white in outdoor mode and 640 by 480 pixels in color indoors.
Meanwhile, using a relatively lightweight version of Linux—Negroponte did not specify what type, but the project is being supported by Red Hat Software—will allow for instant-on.
“We are also talking to Microsoft. They’re going to make a Windows CE version” for the machine, Negroponte said. “We’re going to help them make a Win CE version, so geez, why criticize me?”
Screen res: Notice? It’ll be great outdoors and at least sufficient inside for e-books. Also significant from an e-book perspective: CNET’s statement that “Negroponte showed pictures of two concept machines, both of which are so-called convertibles. Thus, the machines can open like clamshells, but their screens can rotate 180 degrees and fold down to create a writing surfaces.” Or one for reading!
Related: CNET story on Quanta’s role in the laptop project. Also see Negroponte defends merits of $100 laptop project.
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Comments:
And maybe they can also sell this laptop at a higher price to developed nations under a subsidy scheme:
Price in developed nation = price for third world + $X
The $X will go towards subsidizing third world children in getting such a laptop. Kinda like Adopt-A-Laptop thingie.
I think their plan was to sell the device to individuals at twice the price and in a distinctly different colour scheme, so that owning one destined for developing countries as a “Westerner” would be a mark of shame.
I think Snappy! is right on here. I would pay twice the price to a) get one, and b) pay for one for someone in another country. Partly because I want to play around with one myself, and party for the warm fuzzies.
I think once you hit the $99 price point very interesting things can happen. But what has to happen between now and then to get the cost of something like the Sony eReader or the iRex down to that price point?