Comments on: FlexGo: the repo man on a microchip

By: Ejovi Nuwere » Thoughts on Microsoft FlexGo

Ejovi Nuwere » Thoughts on Microsoft FlexGo — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 02:41:14 +0000

[...] I looked into the FlexGo system in response to Ethan’s post and question about my opinion. I have two thoughts. First I don’t think “rent-to-buy” financing models are bad. Rich or poor we pay for objects based on their perceived value to us, not their actual value. When I decide to buy a $1400 laptop from Apple, what it actually cost to make is irrelevant to me as long as I feel as though I’m getting a good deal. If I decide to pay $15 a month for 2 years for a piece of furniture that actually cost $100, it’s because I feel that financing it is a better deal for me at that given time. I don’t consider furniture rentals predatory if the rental fees are within financially acceptable means for the borrower. While paying $360 for a $100 table is stupid, it’s not necessarily predatory if the person has the means to pay it. In my opinion the same applies to rent-to-buy computers. If you sell a consumer a $200 computer for $500 and the user has the means to pay the $500 overtime and feels like it’s a worthwhile investment, let it be. If the consumer thinks they are getting screwed someone else will develop a better business model. [...]

By: Ejovi Nuwere » Microsoft Flexgo

Ejovi Nuwere » Microsoft Flexgo — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 20:02:19 +0000

[...] Continue readings Ethan’s thoughts on Flexgo [...]

By: Ntwiga

Ntwiga — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 03:21:29 +0000

A question that are not being asked that I think should be if I may Ethan: In the countries where the "very poor" are, one can buy a refurbished (read off-lease or end of life corporate hardware that has undergone "planned obsolescence" (yet another mechanism created by the industry to keep product moving but I digress)) for about $100 to $200 all told. This will typically be a PIII machine with maybe 10GB of disk space, 128MB of RAM and no modem, networking or other "complicated abilities". Sellers of these machines will typically install a bunch of open source apps ontop of Windows to make them usable. (most these machines come with COA licences for Win 98 or Win 2000 allowing the resellers to install a valid copy of Windows on the machine). There will also be a ton of games to entertain the kids, and maybe a DVD player with some cheap speakers if you are very lucky. Why, as a buyer, would I pick the Flex Go machine over this considering that maybe 3-4 months of FlexGo payments would have bought this outright? This write up has some more info on this. The 2nd component of the CATIA conference held in 2004 specifially dealt with avenues of dealing with this issue. Basically an attempt to create homegrown solutions to the African problem. I have been sitting on a blog post on this for while, this might be a good time to get it out.

By: Don Marti

Don Marti — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 16:17:19 +0000

I’m not getting how this story is substantially different from the Netpliance i-Opener story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-Opener

Even if the license enforcement chip is effective, the owner of a “remotely repo-ed” PC should be able to sell some or all of the hardware: monitor, case, hard drive, processor, or RAM, to someone building conventional machines. So the store will still have to have conventional repo as a backup.