We've heard about the humanitarian efforts to get laptops to students in underdeveloped countries. The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program has been working toward this for upwards of a decade with help from corporate members like AMD, Google, Nortel, Red Hat and more recently Intel. Intel also launched a program of its own with the Classmate PC for emerging markets worldwide.
I admire these types of efforts. But at the same time, I see a pretty significant hole in the K-12 market at home. While certainly farther ahead than third-world countries in terms of technology, schools still lack access to affordable, durable, mobile computers that can -- as a standard -- be provided to students as learning tools at school and at home. Instead, we still see computer labs and perhaps a limited number of laptops that are shared, and therefore pretty generic by necessity.
Vendors have education programs of course. Arguably the most successful initiative comes from Apple, who's 1 to 1 learning strategy provides access to wireless laptops for students, as well as digital tools to educators to improve and customize the curriculum. But given Apple continues to sell only direct to education customers, such programs mean little to the channel. And regardless, cost remains an issue. Many school districts just don't have the funds to tap into these offerings.
Recent news seems to indicate that school districts might have some reasonable options, however. The OLPC project is considering the possibility of selling its laptops to schools in the United States -- something the organization rejected in the past -- though at a higher price than that offered to developing countries (right now the units set for $175 each).
And computer manufacturer Asustek worked with Intel to develop a new mobile-PC that will be priced as low as $200 and target the education market. A colleague of mine saw the new EasyPC up close at Computex a month ago, where it was unveiled on stage by Asustek CEO Jonney Shih. The notebook weighs less than 2 pounds, includes a solid-state hard drive instead of a hard drive, and comes with 512 Kbytes of memory and a 2-Gbyte cache. It can boot up in about 15 seconds, which Shih apparently demonstrated.
While more info is expected when the product ships in August, Shih seemed to indicate that the EasyPC would be marketed to both developed and undeveloped markets -- translating to access from U.S.-based school districts.
Time will tell what offerings truly penetrate the K-12, where so much is tied to funding. The vendors and solution providers that will make headway are those that understand the big picture enough to recognize that opportunities emerge when these customers are equipped with commodity goods that can drive additional costs.
I'm all for humanitarian efforts, but for the channel, it also makes good business sense.
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