« Posner on educated women | Main | Google towards the online office »
September 30, 2005
Good enough computing
The Economist has an article on Nicholas Negroponte's $100 computer for the poor. The machines' specs are not bad at all. I often teach the Dell case in my technology and strategy classes. One of the questions I ask students is "what could kill Dell" - and one of the answers might be that people start thinking computers are good enough, thus demanding fewer updates and less (mas) customization. To a certain extent we are already seeing that - when a student asks me nowadays what computer to buy, I will answer that, for study purposes, any laptop will do. I especially liked the mesh network piece - imagine what this will do for spreading news and learning. But the OLPC technology can literally change how we think about computing, yet again. The price point is just ridiculous - at $100, I would like to sprinkle a few of these around the house, as email stations, library catalogue, inventory keepers, shopping list creators and TV program selector. With information stored centrally on a server and mesh networking to connect, information - one's own or someone elses - could be literally at our fingertips. Not to mention that you could stop worrying about losing the laptop when travelling - at that price, you could take one on trips and lose it (or give it away to someone needy) when no longer needed.Posted by Espen at September 30, 2005 8:36 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.espen.com/cgi-local/mt/mt-tb.cgi/499