Boosting Penetration and Boosting E-commerce - Essay Example

OLPC: Boosting Penetration, Boosting E-commerce Critically appraise ONE E-commerce supporting "technology" you are familiar with. Your discussion should include identification of the main characteristics, discussion of the function the technology performs or addresses, strengths and weaknesses of the technology, competing technologies and any other elements you think appropriate. How do you see your identified technology developing over the next 5 years? Give appropriate reasoning. While e-commerce and emerging technology has resulted in a massive economic boom for the American market and much of the developed world, there is one upcoming piece of technology which might have a greater effect on the economies of the developing work than anything else in the past. The internet and electronic business might have got their start in America but the expansion and further development of their use will take place in countries like Venezuela, Brazil, India and other countries where the cost of computer equipment still places it out of reach for many people. This is where the $100 laptop and the one laptop per child program comes in, with the market penetration that the low cost laptop brings the number of people who are online will be increased many fold and along with that there will be additional input for e-commerce. In the coming years, EBay could get bids on products from across the world and other discount retailers could find themselves selling to individuals living in places where they wouldn’t even have dreamt of selling their wares. Fundamentally, the $100 laptop is a solution for bringing the internet to the real masses of the world that have till yet remained outside the information loop (Laptop.org, 2006). Since the laptop also functions as a capable internet device the information access and communication technology which is taken as a given by the developed world will also make their way towards the developing countries (Wikipedia, 2006). It may not be the perfect method to bring about equality in the world but it will certainly boost global e-commerce over the coming years. The central characteristic of the project is the cost of the laptop which is expected to start somewhere in the range between $130 and $140 initially when it is launched in 2007 (Zuckerman, 2005). However by the year 2008, when it is delivered in large numbers to distribution centres around the world, the cost is actually expected to be less than $100 (Stecklow, 2005). Additionally, due to the donations expected from large organizations which are supporting this initiative the cost may be further reduced in the coming years (Donoghue, 2006). More importantly the equipment and the specifications of the product are what a person would expect to come with a more expensive machine than one which is bought for a hundred dollars. The computer itself is in a laptop configuration running an AMD Geode 400 MHz processor with an integrated graphics chip. It comes with an LCD display which can also function as a monochromatic display for reading eBooks. The memory capacity of the device is 128MB and it will run the free version of the Linux operating system (Gadgetopia, 2005). Since the cost has to be maintained at the very minimum, only free software and operating system tools can be utilize for the project which in this case will be going with open source software. This has in turn generated criticism and scorn from companies like Microsoft who consider this project doomed to failure since the laptop is simply not powerful enough to handle the requirements of an average user. It does not have a hard disk or an optical drive therefore the media capabilities of the computer are limited at best (Stecklow, 2005). Microsoft recommends its own Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) as an alternative but it costs significantly more than the current cheapest laptops being sold by companies like Dell (Donoghue, 2006). Additionally, since the laptop is not using MS Windows it might put people at a disadvantage who learn how to use computer on this machine and then graduate to a ‘real’ computer with the commonly used Windows environment. The proponents of the project have said that Linux is much better for beginners since the essential point for the users is not learning how to use the Windows operating system, but how to use computers for information/internet access and help with their schoolwork (Wikipedia, 2006). The use of Linux has also boosted the market coverage for the free operating system which is perfectly fine by Linux (Sanders, 2006). Moreover, the lack of a hard drive or an optical disk drive means that there is little which can go wrong with the machine and maintenance becomes far easier. With fewer internal moving parts and the ability to share external peripherals between several laptops a school may need just one or two CD-ROM drives for fifty or more students. I believe that over the next five years, the OLPC program will significantly increase the penetration of computer technology for lesser developed countries which in turn will significantly boost the e-commerce of those nations. While the affect on the American economy may be remote or even non existent, with a global outlook, the impact of the OLPC program is very significant. Children in those countries who grow up with computers will be much more comfortable with technology and ‘being online’ which will bring about a fundamental sociological change in how the countries are run. In conclusion, e-commerce depends on people having electronic access to various websites, portals and other technologies all of which can be brought to the masses of the world as they dive into and get on the internet with the hundred dollar machine. While the developed nations of the world continue to go for the big dollars in e-commerce and bringing everything from airline tickets to the stock markets online, there will eventually be a far larger economy based on billions of people making very small online transactions using low powered computers that allow them to be a part of something which is larger than all of us. That day may not come tomorrow but sooner or later the world of e-commerce will have to face some rather large changes because of a relatively cheap computer. Works Cited Donoghue, A. (2006). $100 Laptop: Great for the world, great for Linux. Retrieved July 4, 2006, from ZDnet website http://insight.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,39020463,39250162,00.htm Gadgetopia (2005). One Laptop Per Child. Retrieved July 3, 2006, from Gadgetopia.com website: http://www.gadgetopia.com/post/4410 Laptop.org. (2006). OLPC. Retrieved July 3, 2006, from laptop.org website: http://www.laptop.org/index.en_US.html Sanders, T. (2006). Low-Cost Laptop Project Boosts Desktop Linux. Retrieved July 4, 2006, from Ecommerce Times website: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/W01IUarvckwmQl/Low-Cost-Laptop-Project-Boosts-Desktop-Linux.xhtml Stecklow, S. (2005). The $100 Laptop Moves Closer to Reality. Retrieved July 4, 2006, from Wall Street Journal website: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113193305149696140-442o71jo_IlBrLpyUeeOdsqDs7E_20061113.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top Wikipedia. (2006). $100 Laptop. Retrieved July 3, 2006, from Wikipedia.org website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%24100_laptop Zuckerman, E. (2005). One Laptop Per Child. Retrieved July 4, 2006, from WorldChanging.com website: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003707.html Word Count: 1,152 Read More