VIA, Microsoft and the Developing World

While OLPC aims for a universal educational computer solution, Microsoft and VIA Technologies have major initiatives for expanding specifically in the developing world.  Both companies are championing programs to cross the digital divide.  Microsoft wants to add a quarter of a billion computer users by the end of the decade.  VIA, more ambitiously, aims to reach an additional billion users by 2010.   
FlexGo
Microsoft's step towards this goal is FlexGo, a pay-for-use system that recently underwent a year-long trial in Brazil. Lenovo and Transmeta were among the partners there, which suggests laptops and low power PCs (based on Transmeta's CPU) may have been among the systems offered. A customer pays a down payment for a PC  then signs a contract with either a bank or internet service provider.  The customer then continues to pay for the duration of the internet contract or must buy minutes (similar to calling cards) to pay off the remainder of the PC.  If payment lapses, the PC enters a “limited access state” until either the bill is paid or minutes are entered.  Microsoft's website offers the example of a $300 down payment on a $600 system, with the remainder financed thru minutes or service contracts.  Trials are coming soon to China, Hungary, India, Mexico, Russia, Slovenia and Vietnam.

While laudable for enhancing computer access, FlexGo's aim is individual PC ownership, part and parcel of Microsoft's longstanding goal of a computer on every desk and in every home.  How sustainable are an additional 250,000,000 modern computers consuming 40~80W or more per system and their attendant e-waste?  FlexGo works in locations that have a stable power grid, but what about the large part of world that has a limited or non-existent power grid? The answer may be that MS is not targeting the truly underdeveloped, but rather, those populations who have reached a certain level of disposal income. Celebrated blogger Ethan Zuckerman believes that FlexGo is "not a technology designed for the very poor, like the One Laptop or Simputer - it’s designed for “BRIC” countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China." Mr. Zuckerman has serious misgivings about Microftsoft's program, concluding, "FlexGo reads as the development equivalent of “greenwashing” to me - an initiative guaranteed to grab headlines, but surprisingly unfriendly to the goals it seeks to achieve." Read his blog for more.
VIA pc-1 Initiative
VIA has targeted a larger, somewhat different user base than Microsoft with its pc-1 Initiative, using a series of rugged, low cost, low power computer platforms for use in less temperate climates than most of the western world.   These are mini-ITX systems designed specifically to cope with extremes in heat and humidity and have low power requirements allowing use in areas where electricity is either unreliable or unavailable.  The architecture is designed for use both in single-user and server/thin-client systems targeting schools, net-cafes, businesses, and internet kiosks.   Not limited to the developing world, pc-1 systems are ideal for rural or off-grid applicatons.  Systems cost around $300 and include Windows XP starter edition or Linux. There's also a focus on low cost, low power networked client/server systems suitable for classrooms. The business model employed appears to be relatively conventional. 

VIA's pc-1 reference designs are all built around their C7 processor and mini-ITX mainboard.
VIA runs an interesting carbon-offset program for the C7-D processor in these systems and use it to justify calling it "the world's first carbon free processor." They calculate the electricity used by processor, which consumes 20W or less, over its lifetime (assumed to be 3 years). 

"Then from the amount of electricity used, VIA calculates how much carbon dioxide emissions will be released into the environment mainly as a result of fossil fuel burning power plants, and then works with regional offset organizations to "offset" that amount of carbon dioxide through projects such as:
* Reforestation: Planting trees in different areas around the world that absorb (or sequester) carbon dioxide as they grow...
* Alternative Energy: By promoting alternative energy such as Solar power, power plants don't need to burn as much fossil fuels reducing the amount of carbon dioxide released into the environment...
* Energy conservation: Efforts to help reduce the amount of energy used, meaning that power plants don't need to burn so much fossil fuels"

There's no mention of the energy used in manufacturing.