Is NComputing better than One-Laptop-Per-Child?
Posted on January 17, 2008
Filed Under Gadgets, Laptops & PCs, Green Tech |
The much awaited laptop under the ‘One Laptop Per Child’ finally came out in 2007, although not quite at the targeted price of $100. Despite the hype, the jury is still out if this will address the shortage of computers amongst the resource challenged. The order book still seems to have a lot of blank pages left.
A more practical alternative may actually be from NComputing, winner of ‘The Wall Street Journal 2007 Technology Innovation Award.’ What does this product do? It enables many users – each with their own monitor, keyboard and mouse – to connect to and harness the power of a single PC. Most desktop PCs being very powerful, a typical user only uses a fraction of its processing capabilities. Depending on user needs and the PC, up to 30 users can be connected to a PC. And the cost to enable this can be as low as $70 per user according to Raj Shah, Chief Marketing Officer, NComputing. This is only the price of the NComputing hardware – the peripherals are naturally extra.
The company has already deployed more than 500,000 seats in over 70 countries in the last two years. These are being used by schools, Internet cafes, colleges, universities, businesses and manufacturing facilities. As an example, the country of Macedonia has decided to equip its entire school system, representing 180,000 student seats, with NComputing systems. Likewise, a school in India could well set up a 40 seat lab at the price of 10 computers says Mr. Shah.
These systems are being used even by schools in developed countries like the USA – where issues of budget also exist – and even at a World Trade Organisation event in Hong Kong. Money saved is often channelised to meet other needs, or even upgrade to better peripherals like LCD screens.
This is a product that could well bridge the digital divide faster and at a much lower cost. Possibly true, if one considers the advantages NComputing offers:
- Lower Investment: Need to invest in NComputing, monitor, keyboard and mouse only for each seat besides the shared PC.
- Reduced Maintenance: In a PC, most problems usually crop up in the CPU unit only. If this is shared, the maintenance cost is spread across many seats.
- Lower Replacement Cost: Again, it is the CPU units that go obsolete or malfunction faster than the monitors and keyboards. One thus needs to replace fewer machines with NComputing.
- Electricity usage down: With their system, Mr. Shah claims the electricity consumption can be down by 95 percent – 500,000 seats means 128 Million kwh of electricity saved annually. If this can be so, can be great in rural (and even urban) areas where dependence on generators can be high.
Comments
3 Responses to “Is NComputing better than One-Laptop-Per-Child?”
Leave a Reply
Indeed it is a new innovation from NComputing but it does not fulfill the mobility a laptop offers. It is most suited for a school or college where users hardly harness the full potential of a CPU and hence by sharing the processing capability offered by a
CPU among many users offers a more optimized way of utilization.
Talking in Indian context –
Apart from schools and other community places this sort of a solution can also work in call centers (BPOs) where hardly 15 to 20 per cent of full computer potential is used.
Now-a-days when the industry is looking at cost cutting measures this might lead to adoption of NC on large scale.
You are right Vinay. I am sure the company is already pitching for it. I did not test it, but if it works as they say, then I feel its a great product.