While innovation is being done around providing solutions for Third World development, having a fully-functional machine makes more sense in Africa than a netbook.
This is according to Eric Salo, AMD's director of marketing for the Internet solutions group, which has directed much of its time to developing low-powered, low-cost computing for the emerging markets.
Salo says the success of the netbook has provided a flood of new sales for vendors, which went forward with the concept of the small machine. However, AMD's research shows the success of the products lies in the cost, and not the small form factor.
For the emerging market, the cost associated with the netbook has seemed like a viable solution to providing technology to the underprivileged. “We believe it would make more sense to provide a full laptop or desktop that can be bought for the same price as a netbook,” explains Salo.
AMD unveiled an initiative last year, aimed at providing access to technology to emerging market segments. The initiative's objective is to enable affordable Internet connectivity and computing for 50% of the world's population by the year 2015.
While the initiative no longer belongs to AMD, the company is still an active member. Salo's division works to create extremely low-powered platforms that are as affordable as, for example, atom-based computing.
The company is currently working in Africa to distribute fully functional laptops and desktops that will be based on Athlone or Sempron processors with gaming-level graphics. The company has also chosen low-power components, explaining that a machine in Windows idle will only use a single watt.
According to Salo, these components will also be available to the outreach programmes they are involved in for far longer than a consumer component. “The tender process is far longer than the consumer sale, and we need to keep those components on hand for as long as possible,” he says.
The company is adamant a one size fits all approach is not suitable for the emerging market environment. “You have to let the local users define what they want in computing. We must be mindful of the needs of the users.”
Salo is currently in Africa to assess the solutions and build relationships in developing sectors to grow its educational platform.
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