$10 Laptop - not a silver bullet

Last Friday The Times of India reported that India's India's Ministry of Human Resource Development is working toward developing a $10 laptop....

Will they achieve what has eluded Negroponte and his $100 Laptop project? They claim that they already have... they have designed a $47 model, which is almost 4 times less expensive than the $100 Laptop (which, for the record, is now supposed to cost closer to $175). The $10 model will take another two years to develop, but with the high quality of Indian engineers and local manufacturing capability, there just may succeed.

Will this be the silver bullet that dramatically increases PC usage in emerging markets? Unlikely. This depends on what end users want.

If Internet connectivity is the objective, a $10 laptop is nice, but maybe not enough...Internet access costs are often out of the price-range of the average citizen. Even in India, where Internet access is extremely affordable (approx. $4.50 per month), $60 per year is still a heafty fee given that the average annual income is only $800 or so....(would you spend 7% of your salary, or say $7K per year if you make $100K, on broadband access....I would think twice before signing up myself)

If a stand-alone computer is desired, the question still remains - what do they want to do with it? Will they be able to afford the software cost? Who will train them on how to use it? Who will repair it when it breaks or gets a virus? Will they have (stable enough) electricity to power it?

I will not debate that the cost of a computer is a barrier to acquisition....but it is not the only one, and perhaps (likely, in my opion) not the most important one.....