[OLPC India] HCL MiLeap = Intel Classmate ?

[Marc Valentin]

I agree with you Joshua, XO is really innovative and I like it very
much. ... But :
- HCL "MiLeap"/"Classmate" and Asus EeePC will be widely available
before the end of the month. If I want to get one or two or even ten
of them... no problem : a visit in a shop, a phone call, internet
shopping, and that will be enough to get it. For the XO ? No hope, we
cannot get one, we cannot get two, we cannot get ten, we cannot even
get fifty of them ! We have to buy minimum 100 ! And how much do we
have to pay for this $200 value laptop ? We have to pay $299 !
This is the reason why I see no future for OLPC in India if the policy
is not changed... fast. Visibility and availability is not there, so
how do you expect XO to be a success ?
- You are talking about "solar panel and the crank will last 10 or
perhaps 20 years". "Durability" is just not an argument. In India
people don't care about what will happen after 10 years, they care
about what is happening NOW. Also, even if they struggle with problems
like having no electricity most of the time, they just put up with it.
About "greenest laptop", you must be joking... Did you ever go to
India ? Did you see the dirt in the streets ? This is probably the
last thing people would care about.
-marc-

On Jan 17, 2008 2:03 AM, Joshua N Pritikin <jpritikin at pobox.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 17, 2008 at 01:16:15AM +0100, Marc Valentin wrote:
> > With Asus launching the EeePC and Intel/HCL the Classmate/Mileap both
> > in India this month. What is the future for OLPC in India ?
>
> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080107182525297
>
> Classmate is more expensive, consumes 10 times the power, has 1/3 the
> wifi range, and can't be used outside. Also, the Classmate doesn't use
> neighboring laptops to extend the reach of the internet via hopping
> (mesh-networking) like the XO does. So not only is the XO cheaper than
> the Classmate, the XO requires less infrastructre expenditure for
> electricity and for internet access. In Peru we can run off of solar
> during the day and handcrank at night for an additional $25 or so per
> student – this is one-time expense – the solar panel and the crank will
> last 10 or perhaps 20 years. Just try running electricity cables up and
> down the Peruvian Andes for that cost while making sure it's
> environmentally clean energy. The Classmate isn't as durable as the XO,
> and its screen is about 30% smaller, the batteries are the type that can
> explode and only last 1-2 years and can't be removed by the user and
> harm the environment. The batteries are expensive to replace: $30-40 per
> replacement. The XO batteries last for 5 years and cost less than $10 to
> replace. Finally, the XO is the greenest laptop ever made, the Classmate
> isn't – this matters a great deal when one proposes to put millions of
> them in the developing world.
>
> Also see:
>
> http://etech.eweek.com/content/desktops_and_notebooks/classmate_pc_useful_but_not_in_xos_class.html
>