The $100 laptop project (to be honest, I did not know about that one) has run into some issues, but is still on target to land under $200. These are some very, very smart folks working on this, big big brains; and I’m all for laptops for everyone. Internet access as a human right is a reasonable position to me, so more power to the cheep laptop people.
But I hate to say it: I think the thing is doomed. Sure it’s a great engineering feat and a great thing to do, but I think its done because the market already offers a superior answer in the millions of units: I say iPhones for every sentient mind that wants one!
At $300 retail , the engineering and manufacturing to be close to $200 is proven, and the value of the iPhone will compounded by a vast ecosystem for years to come.
Right now, the iPhone is to every other cell phone as a flashlight is to a candle. Its just no contest. One could really get by without a computer . Compared to the $188 laptop, the iPhone uses a fraction of the energy, is far more secure and portable, and incidentally offers the benefit of being a phone- a little gadget known to improve quality of life.
If a pic is worth a thousand words, here is a kilo
It’s just a hassle to deal with multiple devices. Someday soon many of us are going to be wearing or carrying a ‘thing’ thats going to do our computing, communicating, entertaining, informing, and recording- while also managing storgage between itself and network/docking locations, and the iPhone might just be the Wright Flyer of the age- the first one that actually flew.
I don’t own one. (well, I do own many, in the corporate sense..) So many friends and family and whoever use Verizon that the switch would kill them in billings. I love the social blackmail involved there, but thats another post. I use a PocketPC, which sort of bumps along the ground as a proto iPhone. My time will come soon enough- once you have seen an Enormoz thing done, its a lot faster to do yourself.
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