Digital Design Blog

Enter the Bargain Ultra Mobiles: One Laptop Per Child’s XO vs. The ASUS Eee PC

Two very different bargain ultra mobiles are hitting the market this month. The first, and most ambitious, is the “$100 Laptop” from Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child initiative which is designed for educating children in the developing world. The second, which purposes to be aimed at children and the elderly but is really geared towards the fashion-conscious business crowd, is the ASUS Eee PC — a slick 7″ portable running Linux or Windows that is priced at $399.

Though each of these devices is targeted at a different user base, taken in sum they both point the way towards a new networked and highly mobile mode of computing.

Both run Linux OS and have decent-sized flash-drives. And each is geared towards a utility-based computing model where applications are browser-based. Think Hotmail or Google Docs versus MS Word or Excel.

The ASUS model has an especially slick interface and boasts OpenOffice and is powered by an Intel Celeron processor. While the device may not be iTunes or Windows Media friendly, it certainly is media capable. Early reviews have been strong — four out of five stars from LaptopMag, for example.

The green candy-colored XO Laptop from One Laptop Per Child is certainly a more ambitious undertaking. Completely sealed and designed for the most rugged environments, the device is water-proof, dust-proof and drop-proof. It boasts a built-in video camera, can be charged via a solar battery and is ultra-network friendly: wifi ready plus a mesh peer-to-peer network.

To jump start the initiative for cash-strapped developing nations, OLPC has come up with a rather ingenious giving plan. Between November 12 and November 26, OLPC is offering a Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. During this time, you can donate the revolutionary XO laptop to a child in a developing nation and get one for yourself. All for $400.

Palm’s Foleo never got into production, but clearly Jeff Dawkins knew where the consumer market was heading and that ultra mobile computing has a place in it. The OPLC XO and ASUS Eee PC are just the tip of the iceberg in this category. These are machines made for an always-on, always-connected life that demands a more robust mobile computing device. Activities like blogging, shooting/uploading video, writing a report, etc. demand a hybrid model. Certainly the iPhone and Blackberry Curve are meeting some of those challenges today, but not all.

Watch this space over the next 12-18months. I’m sure much more accomplished computer hardware manufacturers will enter this space soon. Software too. The blogsphere is already buzzing about a Mac tablet. Forgive the pun, but the market certainly seems ripe for it.