Give 1 Get 1: You’re kidding me, right?

I fell in love with the $100 ‘XO’ laptop, with the OLPC (one laptop per child) project. The idea was to produce a small, super resistant to heat, dust, water, etc laptop that would be sold in developing countries for a $100. Cool, huh?

The idea is brilliant. And feasible. I know for fact that the Egyptian Ministry of Education spent several hundred million dollars putting computers in schools everywhere around the country - and that those computers are not used because the computer teachers either don’t know how to use them or because they are worried kids will damage them (I swear).

Which means that: a) developing countries have that kind of money and b) laptops will be far more efficient than computers at schools.

Libya was said to be charmed and was buying 1.2 million computers by June 2008. (though I doubt Kadafi isn’t about politics rather than development).
But it wasn’t going that well, and political promises aren’t signed contracts. So the computer makers came up with an excellent idea: they will sell the laptops in the developed world; and with each one you buy, one will be given to the developing world. Give One, Get One: G1G1! First recipients will be Cambodia, Afghanistan, Rwanda and Haiti.

I dig.

Only, here’s the thing. Instead of $100, it will be sold for its real cost - twice as much. BUT, since you’re paying for 2 - one for you, one for a little Cambodian kid, you’re paying $399.
How many people will be willing to pay $400 for a funky green non-upgradable computer? A large part of the options that make it great for poor countries - dust and water resistant, rechargeable by a foot-pump, etc - are pointless for most of us.

Sad, but I don’t think it’ll work.

For $400, I wonder if people won't just go get a refurbished Toshiba laptop instead..