Microsoft demos "FonePlus" OLPC killer

Proving that corporate agendas sometimes can't be put aside long enough to create a unified computing platform for the world's poor, Microsoft has unveiled "FonePlus," a concept device making good on its proposal to use smartphones as the basis for sending computers deep into emerging markets. Unfortunately we've been unable to dig up any eye candy, but FonePlus looks to follow Gates' formula pretty closely: you get a CE-based smartphone (likely watered down from the full Windows Mobile package) with TV out and an external keyboard connection. The logic behind FonePlus suggests that phones and televisions are pervasive even in some of the world's poorest regions, making the product an easy sell -- plus, Internet access is part and parcel with the phone, something OLPC doesn't provide out of the box. Whether FonePlus will see production remains to be seen, but Microsoft's studying the idea closely -- and when you get snubbed by OLPC in favor of Linux, well, it's no surprise to see them come out swinging.

[Chris @ Jul 28th 2006 3:08PM]

What the hell is stopping them from putting video out and external keyboard support into the current smartphones?

Why can't I plug my 2125 into an external keyboard and pipe the video to a low res LCD display?

How about a non-watered down version for the rest of us?

[TB @ Jul 28th 2006 3:11PM]

A USB port in a Windows Mobile PDA. Is that too much to ask, Bill?

[KawF @ Jul 28th 2006 3:25PM]

Totally different target end-users and totally different TCO levels, thusly, not an OLPC-killer unless you throw one of these at an OLPC unit at high speeds.

[Lukasz @ Jul 28th 2006 3:33PM]

FonePlus'es are already on the market since few years, like Nokia with Symbian operating system and bluetooth keyboard...

[LS @ Jul 28th 2006 3:46PM]

yeah, televisions are as wide spread as mobile phones are in the under-developed world. I'm tired of hearing about africa bleating on, being so poor and all, when in the background I see them sitting in their shit/mud hut watching 24 whilst they order up a takeaway on their sweet cells

who thinks this stuff up?

surely the whole point of the OLPC project is to educate the poor with something approach modern technology (i.e. something that doesnt require steam to operate)?

ok, rant over

[boolean22 @ Jul 28th 2006 4:06PM]

I personally think (as I'm living in Argentina) that the 'emerging' countries they are aiming aren't anything but 'emerging-markets' in which TV's and Cellphones are all over the place. This said, the target audience is NOT Africa (or what Africa really is) and appears that M$ and others are having a distorted way of seeing things.

[Lee Gibson @ Jul 28th 2006 5:06PM]

Didn't OLPC kill itself, by being useless?

[kvp @ Jul 28th 2006 5:17PM]

Keyboards for mobile phones are around for some time since the ericsson t10 with its small external qwerty keyboard. Video output from mobile devices are even older, the texas instument ti8x series of graphical calculators being the first ones to support video out with a plug-in signal converter. Everything was around 20 years ago, but most companies tought there is no market for it. This is the same story as the story of the personal computer from xerox and another company who saw business potential in it, called apple.

ps: A wireless video out profile standard for bluetooth would accelearte uptake of this technology without microsoft's help.

[fitosp @ Jul 28th 2006 6:42PM]

FonePlus misses the point... It's not only about access to information and communications, but also about potential uses in an educational setting. With the OLPC, people not only will be able to have access to information, but will also be able to type papers and do other types of school work. Try doing that on a cell phone keyboard. Hell, the OLPC will run linux, so it potentially could even be used as a lightweight development machine in an educational setting. Again, try doing that with a winCE cell phone. I think the key here, is not only giving people devices that allow them to access information, but also empowering them to participate and contribute. I'm from Brazil, and I fail to see what kind of socially positive impact a cheap smartphone would have. Cell phones already are ubiquitous enough around here anyway. It is not uncommon to see homeless people and street kids with cheap pre-paid cell phones in the streets of São Paulo. On the other hand, I can clearly see the benefits that providing an OLPC to every child “enrolled” in a public school would bring.

[zorg @ Jul 28th 2006 9:12PM]

Many posters here miss the point of the Foneplus. It's okay if it sucks. Its purpose is to lock out the OLPC, not to satisfy anyone. Microsoft realizes that if an infrastructure develops around the OLPC, that infrastructure could later grow into a threat. It doesn't really matter what the povs in the third world need or want, nor if they can afford this. If enough of them can be made to accept this for nothing or with a subsidy, it keeps a rival ecosystem from springing up.

People who are comparing what the Foneplus can do to what the OLPC can do, and how all that relates to needs, are really just misguided do-gooders. This is about wiping out a potential competitor before it happens. Pure and simple. India's rejection of the OLPC was a good step toward this. The claim that India did so because of the stated reasons that OLPC doesn't help the poor? Yeah, right. You don't think Indian legislators can be bought and made to spew "what about the cheeldren?" while helping to stab OLPC in the heart? Okay, go back to reading your Harry Potter books. Here on Earth, business will continue as usual.

[Textbook Case @ Jul 30th 2006 3:05AM]

"Proving that corporate agendas sometimes can't be put aside long enough to create a unified computing platform for the world's poor..."

"Its purpose is to lock out the OLPC..."

Yes, the last thing the world's poor need is any sort of competition or product aimed at them instead of aimed "for" them by a bunch of busybodies and know-it-alls. No matter how long it takes, no matter how much the specs change, the OLPC is gospel, it is unassailably perfect and cannot be questioned. Neither should there ever be alternatives to the OLPC worldview. Microsoft it evil both by existing in the first place, and for creating a product they think a poorer person might want.

In fact, the OLPC is so sacrosanct it can't even be sold to its target market. It must be sold to their superiors "for" them, because there's no way some poor Cambodian could possibly know what he or she really needs. But Mr. Negroponte and I, we know. We know he needs an OLPC more than a light bulb, more than a non-leaking roof. And we know he can't possibly need this MS abomination. You're welcome, lowly third worlders, we totally know exactly what you need. Poverty solved.

[Ed Gordo @ Aug 28th 2006 4:00PM]

What about cost?