« geek lust | Main | A new hero? »
$100 Laptop redux
November 17, 2005 ( geek )
From the BBC, backstory available here.
Although the laptops will initially be available to government only, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is in talks with commercial manufacturers to make it available on the open market.To take part in the initiative, governments have to commit to buying a million machines for around $100 each.
...
To overcome the potential problem of secondary "grey markets" for the machines, Professor Negroponte said the idea was that they would be so ubiquitous and prominent it would deter potential re-selling.
"I hope there would be community pressure so it does not appear in the secondary market. The technology is in it so that the machine is disabled if not connected to the network after a few days," he added.
Now, I'm extending some credit here, based on the laptop's home page, that this "not connected to the network" means any network, not just the Internet. If that's not the case, then it will be a huge problem.
But the plan to avoid grey/black/"secondary" market problems (love those euphemisims!) by ... ubiquity? If companies can make money by bottling tap water and selling it at the grocery store, I posit that there's always money to made in reselling, no matter the ubiquity of the good. Now, make that good a super-useful laptop, and restrict who can acquire it through legal means (students, through gov't initiatives) versus the likely demand (pretty much everyone wants a computer, especially a laptop, for prestige/bling if not functional utility) (Heck, I want one!)... and... yeah.
Community pressure is an interesting thing to depend upon, and I can see some merit in it. With an obviously distinct item (a lime green laptop), I can see a best case scenario where people who aren't children seen with them are immediately recognized as thieves or having bought from a thief, and cultural/community sanctions/attitudes may obtain... Within the region that the project is advertised in... extra-region or international black markets won't be constrained by that social pressure.
Let me back off; I do think there is a lot that is being done well with this project -- the laptop has some good design features (particularly the crank-power option!) for the 3rd world situation. Hopefully the keyboard is dust/dirt/water resistant too. I just hope that the implementations, costing at least 100M, are as well thought out, and I don't think this part has really been shown as yet.
Posted by griffjon at November 17, 2005 01:12 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.GriffJon.com/journal/MT/mt-trackback.cgi/146
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)