What's an iPhone worth?

Last weekend the new iPhones went on sale, and several of the bloggers I read regularly rushed out to be among the first to own one (or two), and publish their reviews. Around the same time I came across a news item from Nigeria about a school that has joined the One Laptop per Child Project (OLPC).

The news from Nigeria was that the Galadima Primary School in Abuja was without electricity so students could not power up their new laptops. I visited the OLPC wiki and left a message to follow up on this, and got a nice response from Walter who said, as I expected, that the OLPC is certainly aware of power shortages in the countries where they work, and have strategies for many alternative energy sources, including hand cranks like the ones shown above.

It's not clear to me why the news article did not go one step further to learn about these alternatives, but it was ironic to me to read, just minutes apart, about basic infrastructure problems in Nigeria and then about a new iPhone owner complaining that it takes too many screen taps to call his wife. It's always interesting to me to see what becomes important when the truly important things are taken care of.

The OLPC features what some have called the "$100 laptop", but which actually costs around $175. These are real computers --not toys-- and they have Internet connectivity, built in microphone and camera, a swivel screen, and the capacity to store hundreds of books (click on the image to enlarge).

I'm not saying people definitely should not buy an iPhone, but we can encourage them to consider an opportunity to divert some discretionary funds to change someone else's world. At least check out the photos and student work here before you decide.

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