RSSMicrosoft Looks to Cell Phones for Poor
By Ed Oswald | Published January 31, 2006, 1:47 PM
Possibly out of a sense of rebuke, Bill Gates talked about his own plan to bring computing to the poor this week at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Instead of proposing a laptop like Nicholas Negroponte of MIT, Gates says the future of low-cost computing is cell phones.
The phone would use a television set, a keyboard and an adapter to turn a specially designed cell phone essentially into a computer. Microsoft says cell phones are a better route since they are already so ubiquitous.
Some have speculated that Microsoft's decision to enter developing markets is due to the fact that the company was rebuffed over using Windows software on the $100 laptop. One report described Gates as "privately bitter" over the group's decision.
Apple was also turned away when free copies of Mac OS X were offered for the device. However, Negroponte has repeatedly said that those who buy the laptops are free to install whatever operating system they wished.
The $100 laptop has already received the approval of the United Nations, and several governments and groups have expressed interest in placing large-scale orders. Thus, Microsoft would have its work cut out for it in both selling and competing with the laptop solution.
The revealing of the Microsoft plan concerns some who feel any fight that would result from two competing solutions could take away from the basic point of the entire initiative.
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"can you imajin people who live with less or a dollar per day will they ever save to get a 50$ cell phone"
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Somebody making less than a dollar a day has other problems than connecting to the Internet !
What are these do-gooders thinking of ?
The solution ain't $100 computers. The solution is free-market economies so people can earn enough to afford real computers !
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The Computer Rodent
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|I can see how this would also benefit those poor, starving Al Queada operatives when they need to coordinate attacks. Man, that will really help the rest of the world. (not!)
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|What are the specification for the free lap tops or will the be just be used in the developed world.
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|There are already cell phones for the poor. They're called pre-paid... :)
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|Sj Prepaid is just for the rich can you imajin people who live with less or a dollar per day will they ever save to get a 50$ cell phone
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|You guys are all missing the toilet when you pee. Cell phones and computers are the BEST & likely ONLY chance to eliminate widespraed / world poverty: both for education AND to eliminate false myths and voodoo superstitions.
The west gives trillions yearly in aid to poor nations, and it's not enough-- they're money sinks: if all the developed nations turned their entire wealth over to the poor countries, within one year almost NOTHING would exist and we'd all be in caves-- that is how CONFUSED a huge part of the world population is. Until we eradicate predudice / hatred & mistaken dogmas and ideologies(you do that by getting folks to join the mainstream world as much as possible)-- most everything we give will be consumed(w/ an equal amount of material or currency produced in exchange)thrashed or destroyed and whatever is left misappopriated and eventually frittered away in warmongering.
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|"Cell phones and computers are the BEST & likely ONLY chance to eliminate widespraed / world poverty:"
ROFLMAo.
Thanks, *that* was funny as hell.
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|He means bad poverty. Not poverty "I only make $2000/mo", but poverty "I only make enough each month to buy 60 carrots".
Computers will likely lead to a whole ton of poor people, but they'll have food and stuff. I mean, picture China. There's a good example of rapid change. Some are rich, quite a few are poor, and lots in the middle are in the $1200-$2000/mo(converted based on living expenses) area.
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|Put down the magazine and go visit Somalia or Rwanda sometime. They sure don't need cell phones or laptops. They need food, medicine and shelter. Stupid. I'm so sick of liberal, "we can fix the world from our desk" idiots.
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|Gate's is living in a total fantasy land. What do you think? Would the world's poor rather have food, housing, a country safe from tyrants and war, or a cell phone?
Get real Gate's. No wonder M$ sucks.
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|Don't you see those folks on the street?
"WILL WORK FOR AIRTIME"
You know all those folks in the third world nations need phones so they can chit chat all day long in their leaf outfits with their imaginary cell towers.
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|I'll give Gates credit. He puts LOTS of cash into the Thrid World. Food, education, medical.
Don't see, oh let's say Jobs, doing the same.
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|that bas**** wont even lower the prices for its US customers .... yeah, Gates deserves credit .... !!
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|All sizable tax writeoffs so he doesn't have to give his money to the government that supports him.
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|fewt why you wanna be hating so much?
Where's the love?
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|LOL
Who's hating? There's no hate here, do you really think he doesn't write it off?
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|Not a problem. Same breaks are there for others and I still don't see them doing anything.
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|I thought Jobs had a yearly income of $0.01? :P
It's hard to donate billions when you get paid that much. Still, Apple is getting up there, and they're starting to both piss off people and gain lots of followers, so I imagine sooner or later they'll follow the path of MS(minus the crappy software).
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|How about cheap BMWs for the starving in Africa? They could drive to Starbucks and use the WiFi with their swell UN laptops.
"Hello I have 8 kids and live in dirt. No water, no electricity, no phones. Can we trade the nice toy for some seeds and maybe a goat or chickens?"
"No sorry, we think its better if you become part of Web 2.0"
"Ok thank you, please don't step on my HIV infected son on the way past."
Yep, fine idea you got there UN. A more useless organization would be hard to assemble.
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|All they'd have to do is get all of us in a room. :P
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|Haha!
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|The idea is to get a few people educated so they can immigrate and make lots of $$$ in North America, and then hopefully they'll either go back to help, or use lots of their $$$ to fund helping projects.
I mean, if you educate one doctor, and he donates $24,000/yr to help his country....that can feed a lot of people, and educate them too. Heck, probably half that would save a village, so he could save 1-2 villages per year and help educate even more people.
It spreads like a plague...except knowledge is more positive than AIDS, and knowledge also combats AIDS. So uh...yeah, they're thinking slightly longer-term, but at least they're tackling an issue.
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|"Cell Phones for Poor"
YEah, so they can order pizza and call 911. I mean, it's like...the *only* reason they're starving and sick. It's obvious. They couldn't call the pizza guy or the amulance.
About time someone figured this out. Now they'll have all the food and medical care they so desprately need. All thanks to the MS phone.
Excuse me while I go ask God why people are *so* incredibly stupid.
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|Hmm, imagine the walk to the next tower when their carriage breaks down?
I don't think I've seen the Verizon guy in *THAT* commercial yet.
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|Ridiculous... amazing how disconnected MS is from reality. Nobody in the developing world want to use a cellphone as a computer any more than people in the developed world. Give me a break, connect a cellphone to a keyboard and TV? Could it be any more clumsy? Ever tried to read text on a TV screen? What applications should run on this cellphone? Let me guess, Windows CE of course. Well, plenty of cheap software available that runs well on a TV and is reasonable to use. If not, I am sure MS will have some special price offers for poor people, like 10% rebate on Office TV edition for Windows CE.
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|Well how about, instead of starting with bringing computing and cell phones to the poor, we start with bringing people out of poverty? Or at least trying to.. ahh nevermind im starting to sound like a socialist.
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|Funny how much we start to sound like socialists the more we see how out of whack our priorities are eh? hehe
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