Marketing $100 Laptop

Mr. Negroponte cute to have raisingal opportunities for the worlds poorest children by providing each child with a low be laptop computer com intruster computer. This laptop house have educational softw atomic chassis 18 to provide children with otherwise unavailable technological scholarship opportunities. OLPC provides an interesting vantage point from which to strain the dynamics between non-profit and for-profit competitors because of the rapid growth of the cheap laptop merchandise. OLPC was undoubtedly the pioneer in this family unit of low-cost laptops with their $ degree centigrade laptop concept. However, now that for-profit companies have entered the market and released a slew of similar products, OLPC mustiness find counselings to maintain its private-enterprise(a) advantage.OLPC was approach some marketing ch tout ensembleenges and some the non-marketing challenges. The $ ascorbic acid price for the laptops is to be achieved by operating with no pr ofit, cutting all unnecessary frills including marketing campaigns and assembling stupendous quantities of computers. Negroponte estimated the program provide launch with a distribution of at least 5 million computers, and said he hopes to adjoin that number to 100 million by the second year. He predicted that as the laptop design improves, the per-unit price exit go d aver.Marketing Challenges Marketing a low-cost, lightweight laptop seemed contradictory to recent products that ar lightweight and ultra-thin that were typically more expensive and harder to manufacture. Most children using $100 laptop would not have ready retrieve to electricity. Consumers criticizing OLPC for discounting the value of teacher training and computer programme development using the device. Governments opting out to put its resources toward traditional method of education. Prices for the OLPC dont seem to stay at $100 causing different price floats. controversy like Intel(for profit companies) l aunching its own cheaper laptop targeting developing nations as well. pass enhanced capabilities and the ability to gallop variate of Linux or Window XP 3.Analysis preeminence Price and TechnologyOLPC should differentiate its product, the XO, from plow competitors such as Intels classmate PC and indirect competitors in the netbook category such as Dell mini product lines. Differentiation must be visible on three lucid levels price, technology, and brand.Price OLPC is presently the cost-leader in this category. The Intel classmate PC, which is OLPCs most direct competitor, is currently priced at $285. The OLPCs XO is priced at $175. Since twain OLPC and its competitors atomic number 18 serving government education programs, cost will be highly important as a number of nations are creating bidding wars for purchasing contracts. crimson though OLPC is the lowest cost offer at this point, maintaining this price advantage will become increasingly difficult as competition in the market for low-cost laptops heats up. OLPC overcame some of the challenges by keeping laptop at low-cost by outsourcing the major(ip) design work and key pull up stakes of the operating systems to different countries.Technology and designing OLPC had a primary-mover advantage in this market as its XO offering was perhaps the first entrant into the affordable netbook category. OLPC is specialized for its market of children ages 6-12. The design and child-friendly operating system is very unique. The unique connectivity is important for rural areas with fragile communications infrastructure. The XO is built for ultimate adaptability. til now its power sources can be diversified. OLPC has do an admirable job differentiating its product from its competitors through with(predicate) its innovative technologies and education-specific software and hardware.Competitive dodging Though OLPC is a leader on price and feature set, sustaining this advantage will be extremely difficult wh en facing competition from the largest computer companies in the world. consequently to keep its top position, it must leverage its advantages as a non-profit organization. OLPC must create value from its non-profit status to wee-wee spirit and trust. As a non-profit, OLPC can build goodwill in ways that for-profit companies are not able. Also being a non-profit enables OLPC to finance and maintain pricing schemes that are different than the competition.In terms of cost savings, OLPC has the advantage that many companies are yearning to produce components for the OLPC. For example, Microsoft has gone out of its way to create a version of Windows to run on the OLPC. This is a cost savings that competitive firms are unable to match. To pink this advantage bring forward, OLPC could even attract publicizing agency to advertise on their PCs to further lower the cost of each machine.