Comments on: Mobiles versus Laptops

By: Putting People First in italiano » L’OLPC contro il cellulare - una falsa dicotomia

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:03:28 +0000

[...] Verclas sostiene che la distinzione di Doctorow tra cellulari e laptop, e la sua convinzione che cellulari non saranno mai laptop, sia falsa, e cita la risposta di Steve Song a Doctorow. [...]

By: Mail on Ovi; low end devices, high user adoption « Design in Africa

Mail on Ovi; low end devices, high user adoption « Design in Africa — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:49:27 +0000

[...] needs to happen is for service providers to lower data costs, a ubiquitous internet that can be viewed on all devices and we could be seeing the next internet really take [...]

By: Mobiles vs Laptops: regulatory, technological and development issues « MMD4D

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:57:27 +0000

[...] blog Many Possibilities… emphasizes the faulse dichotomy within the technological debate. The technological convergence [...]

By: Hash

Hash — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:29:54 +0000

Steve, thanks for your excellent thoughts on this new meme. I wish I had found it before writing my own, as you covered most of the points in such better/greater detail.

You nailed it with, “Don’t Judge Mobiles By Rich World Standards”. That’s the problem, so many outsiders view Africa and other developing areas as something that can be fixed/changed/upgraded by the solutions that work in the rich countries. Some ideas can be adopted, but that doesn’t mean they’ll fit the local and cultural norms of either business or the people themselves.

By: Woody Collins

Woody Collins — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:03:54 +0000

It is laptops AND mobiles! I can’t wait until mobile towers extend the voice and data services out to true bush areas of Africa.

Prior to mobiles, it costed me over $8,000 (plus $35 per month) to bring email to our remote village. It was a CODAN/VHF radio setup screaming at 900 bps. Today, it costs about $100 (plus pay-as-you-go connectivity) internet-ready mobile. BUT both solutions uses a laptop.