Weve long held that one of the best ways to drive growth is to provide simple, affordable solutions to the great many nonconsumers in developing countries. This article discusses an interesting example: a computer that costs about $200 targeted at users in India who cant afford higher end solutions. To hit that low price point, the computer lacks features that existing users take for granted, such as a hard disk and Windows software. As the developer states in the article, the computer lacks the "unnecessary fluff of the conventional systems.'' It can adequately do everyday tasks such as surf the Web and word processing. The critical thing always is targeting the right product to the right user. People already consuming good computers would reject this simple computer as not good enough. People who lack the wealth to afford even low-end computers might deem this solution delightful.
Sunday, May 15th, 2005