5 ms·

Cherrypal Launches World's First $99 Laptop

27 points by mjfern 17y ago

nicpottier 17y ago
They are 'available' in the store: <http://www.cherrypal.com/openstore/product_info.php?products_id=5&osCsid=cd8446c6c8fda2baf511bfa7388def7c&#62 http://www.cherrypal.com/openstore/product_info.php?products...; Though I don't think I'd trust it. If they can actually afford to sell them for $99 it is actually kind of a neat product just from a hacking point of view.. I could think of lots of little projects to build using one. $99 is about the same you'd pay for an Arduino + WiFi, and that doesn't include battery, display etc..
ThinkWriteMute 17y ago
I'm sorry but at 400Mhz/256MB I can't possibly use that as a computer. Firefox would barely load 3 tabs.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- misuba 17y ago
  Do most people need 3 tabs?
  - wgj 17y ago
    Concurrent nav is a big feature for power users, but for the rest of the world, probably not. Edit: I'm surprised that this is such an unpopular point of view.
simonk 17y ago
"launched Cherrypal Open Store, which features products designed by Apple, Dell and others. All non-Cherrypal products featured in the Open Store are priced at least 30 percent less than the manufacturer's suggested retail price, but carry Cherrypal's unconditional 30-day money back guarantee." Except they kind of just made up the suggested retail price of the Mac's. Just selling them for $50 less; but don't include shipping so same price as any other retailer.
jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
Enough with the toy computers. This race to the bottom is sickening. I understand the third world could benefit from this. I ask though why do they have to get crap? They don't need as much as us, I understand that. Why can't we work on giving them good hardware? We can bail out banks and try to cure aids. I think were more than capable of a better solution and making the economics work.
- ghshephard 17y ago
  You do realize, of course, that just 20 years ago, this computer would have been considered "Outrageously over-powered, no individual could conceivably need so much performance/memory" I sometimes wonder why it is that, as individuals, we look at the systems that were shockingly powerful and capable, and now consider them to be "crap."
  - jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
    We're not approaching the year 1990. We should be moving things forward and not making them acceptable because they would have been insanely powerful 20 years ago. Software has evolved a ton. Sure playing Sega genesis games on my phone would be something unbelievable, but stopping there would be selling ourselves short, hence we have games with 3d graphics. Compromising and racing towards the bottom is just a coward's game.
  - tjr 17y ago
    These machines are considered "crap" in comparison to current machines and what software is currently expected to run on machines. I reckon it'd be pretty awesome as an OS/2 Warp machine.
  - Retric 17y ago
    One of the more amusing things to do with mondern computer system is to find the most recent year when they would be the most powerful computer on the planet. My guess is a 400MHz modern CPU would place this around 1985 if you include the graphics system etc.
  - rms 17y ago
Luyt 17y ago
256GB ram? My PC only has 4.
- Tagith 17y ago
  Talk about getting your money's worth!
  - SingAlong 17y ago
    Luyt was pointing out a mistake in the Press release :) The ram spec is mentioned as "256 GB" Also, here's the direct product link: http://www.cherrypal.com/openstore/product_info.php?products_id=5 http://www.cherrypal.com/openstore/product_info.php?products... Only caveat is that battery lasts only for 4hrs. Would have been good if that was expandable to 6hrs or 8hrs (maybe for an extra sum). But it's value for money. Specs offered sound a lot better than the Wikireader which is also $99 and does lesser than this
jws 17y ago
What? These zombies are back from the dead? Bring a shotgun and aim for the head. Ok, that might be harsh. But they've taken a couple runs at the computer appliance/cloud storage market. It isn't unusual to see "Product XYZ! Soon to be released [date 6 months in the past]!" on their web site. They might need to work on the website too. I'm getting a cloud of database errors mixed in with the page: 1062 - Duplicate entry '3d4c38322166524845a005d0d2c87438' for key 1
alaithea 17y ago
How much of that $99 is the Windows CE or XP license? At those prices, including a non-free OS, it seems too good to be true. Why do they preach open source, yet not got all the way and use an open source OS?
- anigbrowl 17y ago
  They say Linux too, though not which flavor. Might be a charity writeoff for MS, I doubt the volume license for CE is more than $5 or $10 per seat anyway.
tdoggette 17y ago
The only pictures I can find are small and generic on their website. If no one's held it and written a review and taken pictures of it, it doesn't exist.
spthorn 17y ago
Go to their site, click the Open Store link, then click Buy Now. phpMyAdmin entry page.
zokier 17y ago
"Laptop" ... yeah right Smartbook would be better term to describe devices like this. edit: It seems silly to call this laptop when there even is far more powerful phones on the market.
- netcan 17y ago
  Do older laptops cease to be laptops when they are surpassed by phones?
netcan 17y ago
They seriously need a marketing person on this team. Besides the fact that it is pretty hard figuring out how to buy the product, when you do get to a shop page: Cherrypal 7" Africa mini-laptop (small, slow, sufficient) [C101] $99.00 ..The 7" Cherrypal was designed with developing countries in mind.

27 points by mjfern 17y ago

They are 'available' in the store: <http://www.cherrypal.com/openstore/product_info.php?products_id=5&osCsid=cd8446c6c8fda2baf511bfa7388def7c&#62 http://www.cherrypal.com/openstore/product_info.php?products...; Though I don't think I'd trust it. If they can actually afford to sell them for $99 it is actually kind of a neat product just from a hacking point of view.. I could think of lots of little projects to build using one. $99 is about the same you'd pay for an Arduino + WiFi, and that doesn't include battery, display etc..

ThinkWriteMute 17y ago

I'm sorry but at 400Mhz/256MB I can't possibly use that as a computer. Firefox would barely load 3 tabs.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
misuba 17y ago
Do most people need 3 tabs?
- wgj 17y ago
  Concurrent nav is a big feature for power users, but for the rest of the world, probably not. Edit: I'm surprised that this is such an unpopular point of view.

simonk 17y ago

"launched Cherrypal Open Store, which features products designed by Apple, Dell and others. All non-Cherrypal products featured in the Open Store are priced at least 30 percent less than the manufacturer's suggested retail price, but carry Cherrypal's unconditional 30-day money back guarantee." Except they kind of just made up the suggested retail price of the Mac's. Just selling them for $50 less; but don't include shipping so same price as any other retailer.

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago

Enough with the toy computers. This race to the bottom is sickening. I understand the third world could benefit from this. I ask though why do they have to get crap? They don't need as much as us, I understand that. Why can't we work on giving them good hardware? We can bail out banks and try to cure aids. I think were more than capable of a better solution and making the economics work.

ghshephard 17y ago
You do realize, of course, that just 20 years ago, this computer would have been considered "Outrageously over-powered, no individual could conceivably need so much performance/memory" I sometimes wonder why it is that, as individuals, we look at the systems that were shockingly powerful and capable, and now consider them to be "crap."
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  We're not approaching the year 1990. We should be moving things forward and not making them acceptable because they would have been insanely powerful 20 years ago. Software has evolved a ton. Sure playing Sega genesis games on my phone would be something unbelievable, but stopping there would be selling ourselves short, hence we have games with 3d graphics. Compromising and racing towards the bottom is just a coward's game.
- tjr 17y ago
  These machines are considered "crap" in comparison to current machines and what software is currently expected to run on machines. I reckon it'd be pretty awesome as an OS/2 Warp machine.
- Retric 17y ago
  One of the more amusing things to do with mondern computer system is to find the most recent year when they would be the most powerful computer on the planet. My guess is a 400MHz modern CPU would place this around 1985 if you include the graphics system etc.
- rms 17y ago

Luyt 17y ago

256GB ram? My PC only has 4.

Tagith 17y ago
Talk about getting your money's worth!
- SingAlong 17y ago
  Luyt was pointing out a mistake in the Press release :) The ram spec is mentioned as "256 GB" Also, here's the direct product link: http://www.cherrypal.com/openstore/product_info.php?products_id=5 http://www.cherrypal.com/openstore/product_info.php?products... Only caveat is that battery lasts only for 4hrs. Would have been good if that was expandable to 6hrs or 8hrs (maybe for an extra sum). But it's value for money. Specs offered sound a lot better than the Wikireader which is also $99 and does lesser than this

jws 17y ago

What? These zombies are back from the dead? Bring a shotgun and aim for the head. Ok, that might be harsh. But they've taken a couple runs at the computer appliance/cloud storage market. It isn't unusual to see "Product XYZ! Soon to be released [date 6 months in the past]!" on their web site. They might need to work on the website too. I'm getting a cloud of database errors mixed in with the page: 1062 - Duplicate entry '3d4c38322166524845a005d0d2c87438' for key 1

alaithea 17y ago

How much of that $99 is the Windows CE or XP license? At those prices, including a non-free OS, it seems too good to be true. Why do they preach open source, yet not got all the way and use an open source OS?

anigbrowl 17y ago
They say Linux too, though not which flavor. Might be a charity writeoff for MS, I doubt the volume license for CE is more than $5 or $10 per seat anyway.

tdoggette 17y ago

The only pictures I can find are small and generic on their website. If no one's held it and written a review and taken pictures of it, it doesn't exist.

spthorn 17y ago

Go to their site, click the Open Store link, then click Buy Now. phpMyAdmin entry page.

zokier 17y ago

"Laptop" ... yeah right Smartbook would be better term to describe devices like this. edit: It seems silly to call this laptop when there even is far more powerful phones on the market.

netcan 17y ago
Do older laptops cease to be laptops when they are surpassed by phones?

netcan 17y ago

They seriously need a marketing person on this team. Besides the fact that it is pretty hard figuring out how to buy the product, when you do get to a shop page: Cherrypal 7" Africa mini-laptop (small, slow, sufficient) [C101] $99.00 ..The 7" Cherrypal was designed with developing countries in mind.