Comments on: Moore’s Law meets its match: the OLPC

By: Robert Graham

Robert Graham — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 02:19:25 +0000

...and does it really "give one"?

I bought one last year, and tried to track down whether the other $200 went to giving one. As far as I could tell, the money just got dropped into their general operating budget, and was not earmarked to a specific laptop.

At $250, the Eee PC 701 is a vastly better computer in almost every way, and has the one feature that the OLPC doesn't have: it actually works.

By: jmjames

jmjames — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:21:12 +0000

Wes -

That's a good point. That's the trap they are in. Even at their current price points, they are still way too expensive for their target markets. Remember, in a lot of developing countries, there may only be a few cell phones per village due to cost (indeed, some people make their living being the "village payphone" in some parts of Africa!)... even at $199, the OLPC is a small fortune. So they can't get the volume until they are priced like they have volume.

This is the fundamental flaw with the OLPC project, IMHO. Even at the pretty darned low price they are at now (overpriced for what you get, but still dirt cheap for a PC), they are still priced too high.

J.Ja

By: Wes Felter

Wes Felter — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:14:38 +0000

Apparently OLPC has lower volume than mainstream PC vendors; if they order large batches they have inventory (= higher prices) and if they order small batches they have higher parts cost (= higher prices).

By: George Ou

George Ou — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:27:38 +0000

No, Betanews just fixed it after I informed them.

By: jmjames

jmjames — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:28:11 +0000

Ah, thanks for that, I read it wrong. That makes it an even worse deal!

J.Ja

By: George Ou

George Ou — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:54:40 +0000

Price for two is $400, not $200. You have to pay $400 to buy one and donate one.