100 USD laptop for Vietnamese children?

Since May 2005, laptop sales in the US have surpassed desktop computers. This success has many causes: from the development of wireless communication technology, to the increasing weight of laptops and long battery life due to new technology inventions. But the main reason is their very cheap price.

Currently the line of popular configurable laptops has a price that is only equal to a new phone! The irreplaceable features of laptops such as compact, easy to move, beautiful form, fashion, capacity and features are inferior to desktop computers - making it a labor tool and The most modern entertainment.

In Vietnam, multinational brands such as Lenovo, HP, Acer and Toshiba are making strong marketing efforts to quickly gain market share. Their laptop prices are down to US $ 600-700, only slightly higher than the desktop VN! Meanwhile, the desktop market is growing slowly, profits fall and competition is difficult. Therefore, in recent times, a series of VN computer assembling companies are trying to find their way with MTXT products in many different ways: small companies link back into VOpen project to increase sales and thereby negotiate to import goods from abroad at a good price. Larger companies try to advertise, PR for their products.

Children can access the treasure of knowledge on the internet thanks to cheap computers - Photo: pc4peace

So far most of those efforts have not yielded any significant results. Although VOpen project, although it has been started for a long time, it has not come anywhere, and does not understand how to sell dozens of Vietnamese companies to share some product models? Perhaps this project will share the same fate with the G6 group in the low-cost computer program not too long ago.

The laptop lines of Vietnamese computer assemblers are on par, even higher than comparable products of Acer and HP. This is completely understandable, because the number of machines sold monthly by companies assembling computers under "13 screws" of Vietnam is only about a few dozen, while giants in the world sell. millions of pieces. According to the director of a computer assembly company in Vietnam, the Vietnamese brand laptop actually imported the whole unit from OEM manufacturers in China, if there is anything else installed in Vietnam, it is only RAM and CPU. The price is higher, while the model, warranty and especially the brand are all inferior, Vietnam laptops have been defeated right on their home turf.

Low-cost computer programs of Vietnam have ended without horns. How to get a cheap Vietnamese computer, when domestic companies do not produce any parts ?, even to the snail also imported from China? Vietnamese laptop products cannot compete with foreign brands. In the short term, should we seek to join the international $ 100 laptop program for children in developing countries? Combined with training and reducing the price of internet transmission for schools, perhaps this program will be effective quickly, and help students and students have access to IT industry and huge knowledge store on Internet.

While cheap computer programs for students and students of computer assembling companies do not meet the initial objectives, and most of the promise of participants has gone into oblivion. , the ultra-cheap laptop program - only $ 100 - for children in developing countries has begun to deploy.

This program has an idea from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab (MIT) and the non-profit One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). The first shipment was delivered to Brazilian children, and the IT corporations participating in the program are putting their ambitions to produce hundreds of millions of units in the coming years. The $ 100 price for a laptop with wifi, 500 MHz speed, Linux operating system and 12 "liquid crystal display is really attractive, and certainly for most families in HCMC and Hanoi It is an acceptable cost for children's education, and such low prices can only be achieved by the huge amount of production, thanks to the support of hardware distribution and manufacturing corporations and thanks to open source software.

Surprisingly, currently there are no organizations in Vietnam interested in this international program, is it because it does not bring profit to the parties?

Thanh Long