August 6, 2007

Do We Really Need A $100 Laptop?
The mobile phone is one of the most important pieces of technology spreading across the developing world - and it’s changing the way people, communities and business connect with each other in these areas. Outside the US people use phones in a way many Americans can’t really comprehend. In June we argued in the piece The Three Region Theory For Mobile Phones that people have a different relationship to their phones and PCs depending on which one was introduced first to the mass market. Where phones appeared before the PC - as in many developing parts of the world - the phones become the predominant access to the internet - and in some ways the de-facto computer.
Meanwhile, the US designed $100 laptop has been heralded as an amazing product to make change - a device that with its hand-crank-charger would educate and enable the poor in developing countries. It’s been featured everywhere - from design blogs to newspapers and we’ve all been nodding our head that it must be a good thing. This recent post by Cheskin made us think again about whether it’s really that necessary:
In emerging markets, it’s really a question about whether people will need a PC, as mobile phones pick up more and more ability to access the internet, do banking, get info (e.g. crop prices), etc. In India, the number of PCs connected to the internet are less than 5% of the number of mobile phones. Some mobile operators are talking about mobile service being free if the user accepts ads, so that makes a mobile phone even more accessible for the poor.
People in developing countries already have a low price portable computer - it just has a smaller screen and makes a ringing noise. Hey, you can even buy a hand-crank to charge it. Sure, the computers have bigger screens - but if many Americans can work from their smart-phone away from their office PC, why can’t the Indian poor do their homework on their handsets there? Maybe we should be handing out phones not laptops?
Hey, we’re not trying to pooh-pooh an idea that has a lot of backing and great objectives - we just want to create a discussion to ensure that funds aren’t wasted and people’s lives made truly better.





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