2006-06-01 low-cost-notebooks for less-developed-countries

In poor regions of the world a laptop for 100 dollars shall promote the education and shall make the way in the future much easier.

In the future shall the low-cost-notebooks close the digital gap between less-developed-countries and developed nations. In the moment the first models are tested and developed.

In 2005 the internet-visionary Nicholas Negroponte proclaimed on the World-Economic-Forum in Davos a daring project: The initiative “One Laptop per Child” (olpc), established by himself, will develop one laptop to the price of 100 US-dollars, in order to make child of poor countries the access to the digital world possible.

In the meanwhile the first prototypes are in the test-stage. Recently 15 full working test-equipments are introduced. They are orange, material is plastics and they can modified variable. In the next weeks other 500 test-equipments shall be delivered.

The computer aren’t still in the final-production. The first laptops shall delivered in Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, Egypt, India, China and Thailand. But the laptops aren’t available in the free sale, they shall distributed over a government-initiative to schools. Other countries manifest their interests for the low-priced laptops, too.

However there is the question, if it is wise to distribute low-cost computers with only a little content und possibilites to the crowd, instead to give every grad of school a full sophisticated computer. The time will show if the development of the world’s low-cost-notebooks will remain in mind or if this idea in a few years is forgotten.