[clug] OLPC laptops

[Kim Holburn]

On 2007/Nov/22, at 10:11 AM, Michael Cohen wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 22, 2007 at 08:17:20AM +0100, Kim Holburn wrote:
>> Except aren't most of these destined for poor people outside the US
>> anyway?
>
> Some of the poorest and most uneducated people on earth live in the US
> of A.

Which is why I said outside the US.  We also have a virtual third  
world country inside Australia too so don't get too self-congratulatory.

> Although you are right in saying that third world people can have
> the product shipped to them, but aussies cant... odd... Even small  
> scale
> operations on ebay can find easy postage and handling solutions (they
> even make you pay for it so cost is not an issue). As for the warranty
> they dont need to support it in australia if the buyer agrees to  
> have to
> ship it to their service centers so thats not a real excuse.

How are they going to support it in all the poor places they are  
going to be sending it too.  I would have thought supporting it in  
Australia and the US would have been easier than in places without  
electricity or decent government (although I'm not implying here that  
the US has "decent government").

> Usually this kind of selective marketing results due to problems in
> supply - the vendor tries to control the amount of demand so they can
> meet it.

In this case they are apparently deliberately pushing these things to  
many poor countries so I can't see how normal marketing and support  
applies.

> For example this is why things like iphone were sold in USA
> first.

I don't think that reasoning applies in this case or to the iphone.

Kim
--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961