Schools Debate Price of PCs and Corporate Altruism
AMSTERDAM/LONDON (Reuters) - A pilot project in Africa that aims to provide a
single computer that can be used by four students simultaneously has stumbled
across one of the business world's basic facts of life.
Why make a cheap machine when customers in the developed world will pay good
money for a more expensive one?
The question hangs over efforts being made by American computer-maker Hewlett
Packard (HPQ.N), which in the last two weeks introduced the Multi-user 441
desktop, a computer based on the open-source Linux operating system.
HP reckons the unique design -- in which four keyboards and monitors are
connected to a single central processing unit -- will save schools up to 60
percent of their ballooning computer costs.
But there is a hitch. HP has only made enough machines to sell to cash-starved
school districts in South Africa.
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