Seeker Blog

In January 2005 the MIT Media lab announced an initiative to design and manufacture 100 million Linux laptops with a manufacturing cost goal of $100 or less. The idea is to market the laptops directly to ministries of education, so that individual students will have their own laptop - similar to state of Maine initiative using Apple iBook laptops. The MIT website is silent on whether they envision restricting sales to developing countries only.

What is the $100 Laptop, really? The $100 Laptop will be a Linux-based, full-color, full-screen laptop, which initially is achieved either by rear projecting the image on a flat screen or by using electronic ink (developed at the MIT Media Lab). In addition, it will be rugged, use innovative power (including wind-up), be WiFi- and cell phone-enabled, and have USB ports galore. Its current specifications are: 500MHz, 1GB, 1 Megapixel. The cost of materials for each laptop is estimated to be approximately $90, which includes the display, as well as the processor and memory, and allows for $10 for contingency or profit.

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Why is it important for each child to have a computer? What’s wrong with community-access centers? One does not think of community pencils—kids have their own. They are tools to think with, sufficiently inexpensive to be used for work and play, drawing, writing, and mathematics. A computer can be the same, but far more powerful. Furthermore, there are many reasons it is important for a child to "own" something—like a football, doll, or book—not the least of which being that these belongings will be well-maintained through love and care.

What about connectivity? Aren’t telecommunications services expensive in the developing world? When these machines pop out of the box, they will make a mesh network of their own, peer-to-peer. This is something initially developed at MIT and the Media Lab. We are also exploring ways to connect them to the backbone of the Internet at very low cost.

What can a $1000 laptop do that the $100 version can’t? Not much. The plan is for the $100 Laptop to do almost everything. What it will not do is store a massive amount of data.

How will these be marketed? The idea is to distribute the machines through those ministries of education willing to adopt a policy of "one laptop per child." Initial discussions have been held with China, where there are approximately 220 million students (for which an order would drive prices way down). In addition, smaller countries will be selected for beta testing. Initial orders will be limited to a minimum of one million units (with appropriate financing).

(ht: Chicago Boyz)