You may think Nicholas Negroponte’s  OLPC ($100 laptop) initiative was a failure given that the original idea was usurped by both Microsoft and Intel, both of whom wished to interfere with its direction. Well, it may have been disappointing for those who believed that the OLPC would drive open source software into the mainstream, which it is not about to do any time soon, but it has had “unintended consequences” that I believe are very good.

The Netbook

In my opinion the OLPC spawned the netbook. ASUSTek realized than for a marginally higher cost than the $200 OLPC, you could produce a small form factor laptop. So it did and sold a shed load. Others followed suit. This created a new category in portable devices – a reality confirmed by the fact that the only major manufacturer not in this market is Apple. (The world does not need Apple to validate a market, but it helps.)

The OLPC and the netbook spawned the $10 laptop project in India. Like it or not India intends  to build a laptop at a minimal price. It is unlikely to get the price down to $10, but even if it misses by a mile and the price goes up to $30, it will revolutionize the market in a global way. It’s easy to be skeptical about the idea of such a cheap device, but it’s also easy to be skeptical of the idea of a $1500 car – until you learn that Tata of India is selling them by the thousand.