The recent Technology at the Edge posting by Al Hammond reminded me what amazing ideas can come about while re-imaging products and services for the poor. Hearing his descriptions of innovative technologies in Africa is thrilling. It reminded me of another article I had just read which discusses the recently re-announced sub $100 laptop by MIT.

See: Switched On: Cheapest laptop boasts rich innovation over at Engadget.Com. There the author outlines some of the innovative tech in this new PC and notes how useful it might be for the general market:

I  wanted to draw people's attention to one of the more excting areas of this new site - the NewsRoom. When we were designing the site - we searched for appropriate RSS feeds that could be featured on the sidebars.  What we found was that there is no single good source of news on this subject - so we created our own.  Also very cool is the News Archive where we have articles that go back to January 05.  The variety of sources and range of stories - all with a development through enterprise theme - is really incredible.  Have a look around.

Emerging Demand

Motorola wins contract to provide ‘ultra-low-cost’ phones in emerging markets where millions of would-be wireless customers await

I found this Red Herring article really interesting. It is clearly a BOP strategy for them to be selling sub-$40 handsets in emerging markets. This finally puts connectivity in the reach of many people.