Talk:Retail

Pricing

Well, I think you have to retail laptops at $200 or variate prices depending the country, because in many countries like mine (Argentina) there is a big money inflation (here 1 USD is 3 pesos -local money-). And 300 USD are 900 pesos! And 900 pesos is a complete argentinian salary! And with $300 pesos more we can get a new PC! And buying the b1 is not a good deal.

Inflation and exchange rates are two different things. I would say that what you are talking about is purchasing power or more interestingly Purchasing power parity (PPP). BTW, I agree that USD 100, 200 or 300 can be very steep in OLPC Argentina and in most of the developing world or target population of this project...--Xavi 19:19, 7 December 2006 (EST)

For you $300 USD is a very cheap price for a laptop, but not for us.

If you sell the b1 at $200 USD, the person who buys his one is buying another to a child. Also, the b1 at $600 pesos will be at half price of a normal PC. And in many countries like mine, it will be a good idea.

Outside of Buenos Aires and other major cities, salary can be much less, even lower than 300 pesos or 100 USD per month. --ElfQrin 10:16, 5 January 2007 (EST)

Software development

A further benefit of the retail version, would be that a wider spreading of the OLPC laptop, especially in developed countries, would encourage schools, organizations, and especially individuals (alone or as a team) to develop more software dedicated to it, possibly starting from existing open source projects. --ElfQrin 10:16, 5 January 2007 (EST)

Grey market

Given that the aim of the OLPC organization is to not immediately address offering the laptops at retail, I'll note that many of the grey market laptops may actually be, not stolen, but rather SOLD by an impoverished child (or his/her family). Given that there is a demand in industrialized nations, but no legitimate supply, this will artificially inflate the monetary value of these laptops.

If the goal of the OLPC initiative is for each child to **retain** his/her laptop, then the economic incentive for selling them for food money must be addressed. By flooding the market in industrialized nations, the grey market value of these units will plummet.

--Travis

Why this laptop?

What would this laptop add in review with a normal laptop? Why would someone want to buy a 100 dollar laptop for let's say 250 dollar, with limited options and an operating system that isn't very familiar to most computer users?

Well, how about completely open source drivers? Designed to be used by children (right now using my laptop around my year old son is a real pain because the 1000 dollar laptop that I have is not at all designed for being poked and prodded or rapid drops so using it is an exercise in repeatedly saying no.). Thin client. Most of my use of my laptop is basically as a web browser, a music player and as a chat client. Every use is at least partially supported by this laptop out of the box. It has better specs than my first three computers (and if I could find a 8GB SD card it would beat the fourth as well). It matches what I need for 95% percent of the time that I use a computer better than anything I have seen that costs under $1000. For most of the rest of the time a ssh connection to another computer would suffice. I find those reasons highly compelling.

Kids throw things, pee on things, hit things with socket wrenches, poke things with metal-tipped mechanical pencils, take things into the bathtub, leave things outside on a neighbor's lawn...