Nicholas Negroponte has been championing the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Organization for several years now (Nov 2005) and has yet to produce a real $100 laptop. Its current cost is at $180 since it has to scale up production to really achieve that cost. Now, another player has come out, Intel. As a chip maker, they can really drive down prices. Their current cost is over $200, but like any other manufacturer, they expect prices to drop as orders increase.
In the end, its till the consumers who win. Regardless of the supplier, many developing countries would benefit from a cheap computer. Even now, cheap, second-hand computers cost approximately $150-these are the clunky old models with large form factors that could only be fit for home or classroom use. They cannot be lugged around as comfortably as mobile phones and PDAs.
The cheapest laptops still run around $800 and are fragile as can be, not suitable for young grade school children-the rugged laptops cost more than $3,000.
I’m still waiting for the commercialization of those solid state HDDs, they would really make for more rugged laptops. Anyway, my laptop’s still new-about a year old this month, but still looking new and I expect it to last another 4-5 years. By then, maybe these laptop makers would have dropped prices to something that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
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