[Josh @ Oct 27th 2006 3:19PM]

Lets be clear, these laptops are not meant for the Sudan or some other strife ridden hellhole. If you look at some of the places that put in initial orders for the OLPC (or whatever it has been branded this week) you see places like India and Brazil. These are places that have the basic necessities, have an education system, and are now trying to work on reducing the tech gap with the richer nations so they have a generation equiped to participate in the modern economy. India is argueably further ahead than most other places in this but the population comfortable with technology is only a small percentage of their total technology.

$100 a laptop (which is something none of the cheap laptops have achieved) is still to expensive for the incredibly impoverished nations. Right now the goal is to prove the technology, refine how it is used to HELP educate people (not to imply the technology is a replacement for an actual teacher), and figure out how to drop prices so that it can one day be used to help get the impoverished nations on their feet. It isn't the end all be all answer but if the poor countries remain perpetually 50 years (or more) behind on the tech curve they will remain poor forever.