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Connected Blog

One Laptop Per Child vs Asus EeePC

Ewan McIntoshDecember 15th, 2007

We previewed the Asus EeePC last month, a tiny computer which is cheap enough for most areas to buy in en masse. They’ve since sold out until January! Bill Kerr carries a great analysis between it and its closest competitor, the ‘One Laptop Per Child’ machine which has been designed for use in the Third World.

It shows that they are both very closely matched and perhaps how the Asus, with its low price and competitive features, might ease the pressure on demand in the Western world for the One Laptop Per Child machine which was destined for a market more in need of connectivity.

Categories: ScotLearnFest07

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3 Responses to “One Laptop Per Child vs Asus EeePC”

  1. John Connell December 16th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
    You mention ‘connectivity’, Ewan. The problem, of course, with both machines, and with the Classmate PC, and indeed with any other laptop that hits this particular ‘market’, is that none of them offers connectivity unless a network of some kind is already in place. Stating the obvious, I know, but it’s a self-evident truth that too many in the emerging areas forget (and not only in the emerging markets).

    I have a lot of time for Negroponte in his philanthropic endeavours, but the OLPC, or any of its competitors, will only bring real benefits to their beneficiaries if the laptops can be the medium for access to the Web. Without putting broadband networks of some kind in place, that will not happen.

    Too many countries are pushing the benefits of one device per child without thinking through what will be done with those devices – millions of network-ready computers, but with no networks to tie them to, will have little benefit, educational or otherwise.

    So, as well as the efforts expended by OLPC and others, we also need to find the money and the arguments for extending the Web to every child who gets his or her hand on one of these wonderful little machines.

  2. Ewan McIntosh December 16th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
    It’s one of those posts where I was biting the proverbial lip. Connectivity isn’t the right word, but this is one half of the proposition that is coming together remarkably well. We still need people like you and your colleagues to help find ways of making high speed internet possible in terms of nuts, bolts and wires everywhere on the planet. That, however, requires more scaling than one simple laptop…

  3. John Connell December 16th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
    No need to explain, Ewan – I knew that part of what you were saying was unspoken. Thanks for the opportunity to make it ’spoken’, so to speak.