A $100 laptop might not be for everyone

After some debate throughout the blogosphere, it would appear that there is much apprehension in regard to those proposed $100 notebook PCs. I guess just because it sounds good on paper does not mean that the idea is totally sound.

MIT’s work on a $100 laptop for schools and governments of developing nations has given rise to much talk in the blogosphere about such a product for mainstream U.S. consumers. But it may be years before such a PC could reach general consumers without some form of subsidy, and by that time some non-computer products with similar functions might present formidable competition.

Plans to offer an even cheaper PC–for free, to be exact–were tried as far back as 1999 when component costs dropped enough to allow markedly lower prices. One idea was to offer a stripped-down PC with a contract for Internet service, similar to the way telecom carriers give away mobile phones. But free-PC companies couldn’t make the numbers work, and many went under during the dot-com bust. [Read the rest]