$100 Computer Still 3 Years Away
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Gartner in a press release feels that a $100 computer is still some 3 years away from becoming a reality. Though it was hoped that a netbook would be the first to hit this barrier, at least for college students, the research firm feels that prices will not fall for the next 2 to 3 years. They also stated the following in their press release:
Gartner warned that while it is important that prices continue to come down, companies that become too focused on breaking the $100 barrier could be distracted from addressing other issues surrounding mini-notebooks.
“The economic benefits of IT literacy in emerging markets are currently driving the push for the $100 PC but there are many open questions that remain,” said Annette Jump, research director at Gartner. “These include determining the relevant hardware specifications, power availability, availability and cost of Internet connection, as well as providing adequate finance and payment options for emerging markets where funds may well be extremely limited.”
Ms. Jump said that while Gartner believes that increased demand for the devices, along with declining component prices, could potentially reduce prices by 10 percent to 15 percent in the next two to three years; packaging, assembly and software costs are likely to remain the same.
What do you think? Is there a big need for a $100 computer outside of developing countries?
Comments welcome.
One Comment
Marcus Hamaker
July 29th, 2008
at 6:10pm
Well not until it becomes more main stream. I think that the software developers help drive the need for better hardware and the better hardware drives the developers to make software that is more demanding. Games are a perfect example of this. From my support days for Hercules/Guillemot I know that there was always the push to make the bigger better faster video card out there but the reality was that once it was released the game developers had something that needed the next new faster toy.
We can apply that theory here. Whereas we are looking at something that might run Windows XP in 3 years @ $100, in 3 years Windows XP will be end of life.