Yves Behar, designer of the $100 laptop, is profiled in the August edition of Wired–complete with odds and ends on the latest plans for the machine.
For example, in the magazine’s words: “VOiP and Skype are built in.” And VoIP? Since Skype is a proprietary form of VoIP, I wonder what the nuances are. Inclusion of Skype, if it indeed happens, would jibe with earlier speculation.
Hmm. David Beers will undoubtedly have his own thoughts on the VoIP angle.
Oh, and to think of the possible eBay angle! eBay, parent of Skype, may want Third World merchants to use the auction-oriented service eventually as a marketplace. Voice can indeed facilitate transactions, and, no, language needn’t get in the way, since eBay can localize itself. What’s more, eBay already has good relationships with shippers whose services can or could reach into some astoundingly remote locations. The big question is if eBay will be reasonable about commissions.
Other points in Wired–again in writer Douglas McGray’s words:
- The “802.11b/g antennas have a half-mile range. A mesh network can connect kids 10 miles apart.” Substitute “users” for kids, by the way. While OLPC is billing this as mainly a K-12 machine, people would be crazy to limit its use just to education.
- “LEDs replace a fluorescent backlight. A 640X480 7.5-inch color display switches to 1,200 x 900 monochtorme in bright sunlight.” Well, we kinda of new, but it’s good that to see OLPC sticking to those numbers.
- The guts of the machine are behind the screen, not under the keyboard–making the wiring less complex.The battery is under the keyboard to balance out the weight.
- The OLPC machine is half the weight of a typical laptop.
OK, so what about odds for the OLPC machine? Still good, as I see them–although things may move more slowly than the designers are hoping. From the Wired article:
As of early summer, One Laptop per Child was negotiating with many potential buyers–Argentina, Brazil, China, Eygpt, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Thailand, and countries in Central America–some of close collaborators in the design. But none of them have committed to the minimum purchase of 1 million laptops, at a cost of about $140 each (Negroponte expects the price to drop to $50 by 2010). Which means the program is a long way from Negroponte’s self imposed minimum of 5 million laptops, expected to ship at the beginning of the year. “What happens if we get only 1 milion?” Negroponte says. “We delay launch until we have enough.”
That seems sensible to me. My belief is that whether or not OLPC succeeds as a business, OLPC will still win by focusing attention on the concept of mass procurement to drive down prices–actually past the $100 point in the end. In a somewhat more domestic context, I myself was proposing a similar approach when I published my TeleRead proposal in Computerword in 1992.
I hope this TeleBlog helps, given the accesses we get from most of the countries that OLPC is counting on.
As for Yves Behar, I love his classic philosophy of bringing together form and function, at least in the case of the laptop. What’s more, Wired notes that the man is not self-repeating to kowtow to marketers–he approaches new creations as if they are fresh projects. I’d say more about Behar except I’m out of time right now. I can’t wait until the article is up on the Web so I can link to it.
While technically Skype is VoIP, in my experience it’s becoming more common to use it to refer to SIP softphones as distinct from Skype. Skype’s P2P nature fits well with the networking concepts of the OLPC project, but as a closed source application it’d not the best fit with the open philosophy driving it. I do hope that OLPC will include a SIP phone, as that is the standard presence protocol, and there are plenty of open-source SIP phones to choose from.
— C
I hope Negroponte doesn’t delay too long if he doesn’t reach the magical 5 million order mark. 1 million units is still a pretty big number, and once the things actually start shipping, it might help more buyers “get off the fence”.