Connecting The World
Just
two months ago, I was corresponding with my friend Sam Hiser, one of
my links to the Open Source community, about the fact that most big
vendors ignore the Linux consumer market.
Here’s an edited version of the correspondence and then
(you’ll see the connection) some comments on the new AMD PIC.
Amy,
In
his Linux Journal column (http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7766)
Tom Adelstein
discusses the distinction between the enterprise and the consumer
Linux markets.
He
addresses the gnawing gap between the amount of attention major
vendors give to their large customers
versus what they give to the more-fragmented
and less-profitable (individual) consumer
segment – the very
segment that gave birth to Linux.
He
calls for the major Linux vendors to better honor the root of Linux
while continuing to innovate upon Linux to
bring big new solutions.
The
perception of big vendors taking from Linux, but not giving back needs
to be corrected -- through information as well as action.
Sam
Hiser
co-author
or "Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop"
(O'Reilly
& Associates)
Sam,
it is very "pure" to want Linux to give freely to its
roots in the consumer market, but that's not how markets work. For big vendors to pursue markets, they have to believe they
will make money there. We'll
get them when they can see that there are profitable pieces to the
Linux market and I believe there will be.
The
interesting (and very pure) reason will be that if the market is big
enough Linux may enable some very low-priced products to be sold in
huge volumes. I'm
thinking of $100 computers in the third world.
And lots of very cheap consumer products that are wirelessly
connected to the net. Only something like Linux could be cheap enough to put into a
$2 or a $10 consumer product. We'll
get there -- we're just not quite ready.
You
can't change how markets work;
you can only take advantage of it!
Amy
AMD’s Personal Internet Communicator: Cheap
But Not Linux
AMD
has announced a Personal Internet Communicator (PIC) which is
intended to provide Internet connectivity for the masses –
especially the masses in global markets where a PC or a relatively
expensive handheld device like a PDA is way too expensive and a
telephone is too small to provide a useful interface.
A PIC
is NOT a computer, but rather an Internet connection device that
works with a service provider’s infrastructure to provide Internet
functions like email, Web browsing, information downloads and
perhaps more.
AMD’s
PIC is designed to be robust, inexpensive, reliable, and
easy-to-use. It would
come from the service provider – perhaps the telco (and customized
to it) – in ready-to-use form, complete with software, keyboard,
mouse, and monitor (a 15” CRT) as well as a 10GB hard drive, USB
and other ports. It is powered by AMD’s Geode GX processor and
uses a special version of the Microsoft Windows XP operating system.
Software for communications, entertainment, and education is
included; the user can create documents using a word processor and
spreadsheet tools, view pictures and video, and play games. The ISP
may add additional packages, but users’ access to the system for
installing upgrades or applications is limited.
No
news on price, but the idea is for it to be cheaper than the
cheapest PC – we’d guess that means less than $200.
Expect
to see lots more ingenious ideas about how to bring computing to the
masses, especially the masses whose expectations are different than
in the US where we started with the PC and are so very PC-centric.
Obviously there will be much more to come.
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