On Thu, 2008-04-24 at 11:06 +0100, Alex Hudson wrote: > Ian Lynch wrote: > > The devil is in the detail. Why do they care it runs Windows? Two > > possibilities, simple brand strength and/or because they want to run (or > > think they might need to run) software that only runs on Windows. > > Question is how much they are prepared to pay for either of those two > > requirements. Many people will pay a premium for "the brand" but then > > why not just buy a conventional laptop? - Price. > > Yeah that, but also that OLPC is ruggedised. I know it's in the same > price bracket as eeePC et al, but it's not in the same bracket in terms > of dropping it on the floor / replacing parts / etc. As a hardware > platform, it's quite attractive in some ways which could also attract a > premium,
In the West at least, I doubt that will outweigh other factors. Schools buy lots of conventional laptops and there is not a major issue with breaking them. Maybe surprising but probably theft, "leaving it on the bus", deliberate vandalism, battery costs etc are more important issues. > For OEM Windows sales - I have no doubt MS will sell an OLPC-specific > (almost) version which can only run three apps at a time (or whatever > their Basic limitation was) and do it for something like $5. I doubt > they care about the price too much at this point. So I transfer that Windows License to my OEM desktop and save 67 quid. If they produce a special version of Windows they might get round that issue but it's still a risk. And of course if devices like the EEEPC have the same they will start to take market from conventional laptops which are already replacing desktops machines. At best it's a delaying tactic. > As for your other points - I couldn't agree more. The hardware will get > more powerful, and Windows will slim to fit. The educational apps aren't > good enough to shift sales of this thing alone; customers are still > going to expect 'standard Office apps' on this thing because most > people's computer lives totally revolve around that. At the end of the > day, the problem reduces to "selling a free software desktop", and > nobody has really made a profit from that yet. Probably because they need to sell a service of which the free desktop is part - works for cell phones. > The GUI is a nice design, but trying to sell it is a complete nother matter. The one I tried was so slow it was difficult to make a fair judgement but I didn't see anything in it that was a killer app. And to me the EEEPC experience seemed far superior. After all RISC OS in 1989 was a lot better than DOS or Windows 3 and Win 95 "borrowed" a lot of the ideas but none of that saved Acorn. Ian -- New QCA Accredited IT Qualifications www.theINGOTs.org You have received this email from the following company: The Learning Machine Limited, Reg Office, 36 Ashby Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 8AQ. Reg No: 05560797, Registered in England and Wales. _______________________________________________ Fsfe-uk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-uk
