Who benefits from the $100 laptop?
Unfortunately, it’s probably not going to be impoverished children, at least in Nigeria. Slashdot indicated the other day that Nigeria was lining up to commit to ordering a 1,000,000 units. Sounds good on the surface, but given the level of poverty, I have a hard time believing that the laptops will remain in the right hands for very long – if they ever get there. Nigeria’s average annual income is $300 US. The US average annual income is $36,764. The equivalent of receiving a laptop in Nigeria is like the government sending a US citizen a $12,254 piece of equipment. I don’t believe that the garish colors alone are going to be enough to keep them off ebay. The opportunity for arbitrage is far too great. How about investing instead in technology for their health care system? As of 2003, 5% of their population was infected with AIDS/HIV; One of the lowest percentages in Africa, but still resulting in 2,900,000 people currently living with the disease. Maybe the $1,000,000 should be spent here…. Quanta computers is the real winner here – they’re the company that will be making them.