OLPC: Microsoft, be very afraid

[Josh] I just got off stage at the Forrester Research Consumer event in Chicago. My job was to interview Nicholas Negroponte on stage.

Negroponte, formerly director of the MIT Media Lab and prominent thinker on matters digital, was here to talk about his new venture, OLPC (one laptop per child). Briefly, OLPC is a new PC, low power, no hard drive, that runs Linux and connects in mesh networks. More important is the distribution -- the OLPC organization, a non-profit, will be selling these at about $130 a piece to governments in places like Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, and Libya. Quaddafi has agreed to give one to every single child in Libya. By year two, OLPC expects to manufacture 50 to 100 million of them.

Very importantly, and Negroponte emphasized this, this is not an underpowered machine. It's instant on, instant off, and according to Negroponte, blazingly fast.

Now Microsoft has an obvious monopoly on personal computing platforms worldwide. Apple is trying to to chip away at it one Mac at a time -- same with Linux. But in one fell swoop, in a period of two years if he gets what he wants, Negroponte will be shipping by the tens of millions.

Once the OLPC gets out, many, many software developers will develop apps for it. Mass attracts talent. And while the hand-crank powered machine is not right for an American Adult consumer, it has many attractive features, and -- Negroponte confirmed this on stage -- OLPC will license their patents on the device. Which means somebody else could create a "professonal" version. Remove the cost of the Microsoft software and you've got a very cheap, very capable, very portable machine. And you feel good, because when you buy it, you're helping third-world kids. As Negroponte said, it's better than a yellow bracelet.

Microsoft is talking about their own version based on a smart cell phone. But 100 million laptops later, if I were Microsoft, I would be very afraid.

What do you think?

Technorati tags: Bernoff, Forrester, OLPC, Nicholas Negroponte

Comments

[tim]

I think the day the US gets its own primary education straightened out will be the day Microsoft needs to worry, and not before that. Who is Negroponte to show the third-world the way? Nobody, that's who.