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In 2005, MIT Media Labs’ Nick Negroponte touted the idea of a cheap, sturdy portable computer meant for educational use, and the OLPC project was born amid much buzz. One Laptop Per Child–a very interesting concept! They wanted to produce a small laptop that had long battery life, an easy to understand user interface, and can withstand wear and tear associated with kids’ use. The clincher: it would only cost $100.

Sounds impossible? Think again. Today, the most popular computer in terms of sales are tiny devices called netbooks. And these are not crippled, low-end laptops. Netbooks are essentially full-featured laptops. But the dimensions are miniaturized. Screen sizes (and form factors) are usually in the 10 or 9 inches diagonal. Netbooks usually weigh anywhere from two to three pounds. And not only are they easy on the back (because of the light weight), they’re also easy on the pocket.

Netbooks don’t come at $100 a pop, but they’re close enough. Some retail for as low as $250. Some go as high as $500 or even more, but that’s for the higher-end ones. And because new models come out every three months or so, you can expect older models to retail for $200 or less. Close enough to the $100 if you compare it with full-fledged laptops that can cost $600 for a barebones model to more than $2,000 for a high-end, high-performance rig.

And consider this: before netbooks became popular, ultraportables that size would cost $2,000 or more.

A paradigm shift

While the OLPC project did not directly cause the netbook revolution, perhaps established computer manufacturers were inspired by the idea that low cost mini notebooks could be marketable. Asus was first to market with the Eee PC in late 2008, and a host of other brands followed suit.

Chipmakers then grabbed the opportunity to be involved. While the first generation netbooks were powered by older-generation Intel Celeron-M and Via C7-M chips, Intel ramped up development of its low-power, low-cost Atom platform. Via had its own Nano. Even AMD, who previously derided the netbook market as not worth getting into, being a low-margin one, has recently joined in, with its own low-power, low-cost Athlon Neo.

And it’s not only the hardware manufacturers that have gone through drastic adjustments. Even software giant Microsoft has made concessions. While Windows XP was supposed to have reached end-of-life in June of 2008, Microsoft has extended XP’s life to support netbooks, cognizant of the fact that Windows Vista has such high system requirements that it would run poorly on the often low-spec’d netbooks. Some manufacturers even offered free XP “downgrade” (or upgrade, depending on your point of view) discs to netbooks that came bundled with Vista.

Now Windows 7 is just around the corner. Windows 7, the much awaited successor to Vista, is touted to run well even on low-spec’d computers, netbooks included. That’s a big change!

Perhaps this was a response to the threat that Linux might finally gain ground over Windows in the consumer market. And at first, this was the case, with most netbooks being sold with customized flavors of Linux with user interfaces designed to be easy enough for beginners. Now, most netbooks come with XP pre-installed.

A commercial success

Even with razor thin profit margins, I suppose laptop manufacturers are making good money on netbooks because of volume. A lot of people who couldn’t afford to buy computers before are now able to. A lot of people who found computers very complicated now have simple, easy to use, durable devices that let them to just about anything that a bigger, more powerful computer can do.

What’s the lesson here? Commercial success is not necessarily only beneficial to big business, especially if it advocates ideas that are formerly only the realm of idealism. Nick Negroponte wanted to give kids an opportunity to use computers as a tool for learning. And the project has already been able to distribute OLPC laptops to students in develping countries, in partnership with their respective governments and some benefactors.

In a way, netbooks are espousing this ideal, too. For one, economies of scale can drive down the cost of manufacturing parts and peripherals for both commercial and non-profit applications. Also, schools are ordering netbooks for students’ use en masse. Some netbooks are also designed specifically for use in the education market. It’s great to see idealism enter the mainstream.

Now the question is whether the computers are, indeed, an effective tool for learning, especially in the developing world. That’s a topic that’s worthy of further debate and discussion.

image credit: flickr/snapeverything