Talk about playing politics with the world's under privileged. Microsoft, apparently disgruntled at Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop per Child plan to distribute $100 laptops to the world's poor using open-source software instead of Windows CE, is now working on a very similar project to connect poor people using mobile phones that have keyboards and adapters to connect to a TV. Microsoft says this is a cheaper solution. There are still a lot of logistics that need to be worked out either way, such as the cost of connectivity and how cheaply vendors can make either device. The more devices available for developing nations to bridge the gap, the better, I say. Hopefully, politics won't drag down this humanitarian goal.
For more about Microsoft's low-cost cell phone idea:
- read this article from The New York Times
- check out this post from Techdirt Wireless