One Laptop To Change The World

One laptop to change the world Ian Howard, Schulich School of Business, 30 March 2008

he has a dream...

the “movement of recorded music ... is about to become the instantaneous and inexpensive”

Negroponte, 1995

a disruptive technology According to Christiansen: disruptive technologies offer “a different package of attributes valued only in emerging markets remote from, and unimportant to, the mainstream.”

source: Wikipedia

evolution of disruption

Jan 2005 – OLPC project officially begins at World Economic Forum

Working Prototype WSIS Nov 2005

Oct 2007 – Uruguay orders 100,000 units

Nov 2007 – OLPC begins mass production

Jan 3rd 2008 – Intel quits

Jan 5 th 2008 – Give one get one laptops begin to be sent to Cambodia, Nepal...

CES Jan 7 th 2008 – Asus eeePC, Intel ...

1. the big push vs. pull development debate 2. the fortune at the BOP debate A disruption in two camps

Debate 1: Push vs. Pull Sachs Easterly vs.

Debate 1: Push vs. Pull Big Push Utopianism Planners neo-colonialists Non-Interventionist/Pull Pessimistic Seekers Simplistic Sachs’s ... conviction [is] that Africa can be saved with $75 billion a year in Western aid. ... In Easterly’s opinion, the present generation of white philanthropists is no more likely than earlier ones to succeed in a self-appointed (and at times unwittingly imperial) mission of enlightening the Dark Continent. source: Economist's View vs.

Debate 1: Push vs. Pull

“ our breathtaking opportunity {is to} spread the benefits of technology... to all parts of the world...”

a quote taken by Easterly from Sachs' book The End of Poverty

is a $100 laptop affordable for the poor? will they ever buy it? (or will someone buy it for them?)‏ (or are cell phones the answer?)‏ Debate 2: is there a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid?

Prahalad's Principles for BOP Products:

1) Price

2) Hybrid

3) Scalable and Transportable

4) Resource conservative

5) Functionality over form

6) Process innovations are just as critical as product innovations.

7) Deskilling work is critical

8) Education of customers on product usage is key

9) Resilient and durable

10) Appropriate interfaces

11) Innovations must reach the consumer (urban and rural)‏

12) Platform approach so that it can be added to and adapted quickly

Nov 2007: a $180 laptop is born

and Intel reacts with a $280 laptop

and ASUS with a $400 laptop...

is there a fortune at the bottom? 162,000 XOs have been sold since November! (to US and Canadian consumers)‏

ASUS expects to sell over 5 million units worldwide (but not to the poor)‏ There is a fortune at the middle and top of the pyramid

Competition is good. Two models have emerged, a commercial “pull” model that is attempting to straddle markets (Intel, ASUS) – middle of pyramid vs. A “big push” market that is attempting to create a “blue ocean” (OLPC) – bottom of pyramid

The OLPC has certainly caused a disruption, but perhaps not the one that Negroponte had wanted.

Is OLPC a BOP product?