I'm sure you've heard about the not for sale laptop by now. The press it has been getting has said they cost $100. The kicker is that they're not for sell. Even when a government does buy them, they're going to be sold at cost.
I inquired about getting one since I could add value to one. Here's what the auto-responder sent back:
Inquiries about buying the laptop regretfully cannot be answered. Please
note that the $100 laptops--not yet in production--will not be available
for sale. The laptops will only be distributed to schools directly through
large government initiatives.
Bollucks!
They really need to do one thing with these laptops: make the design freely available. At least then if they're not going to actually sell them, someone else could because I would enjoy having one.
I suppose I could buy one off of some kid when they get out in the wild. $100 might be worth a couple cows to some African, and it's what they do to the free t-shirts the west sends them.
Reminds me of the AMD
Reminds me of the AMD PIC(Personal Internet Computer). Sub $200 Computer that was marketed toward low-income families in Mexico and China. You could never find them for sale in the US when the first came out. I heard that recently you could get them at Radio Shack, but they want $300. Since you can now find a $300 system with monitor from Dell, it doesn't seem like anyone would be willing to buy a PIC.