Endless targets the developing world with its OS and $169 computer, currently on Kickstarter
Issie Lapowsky / Wired :
Context & Ripple Effects
Endless arrives in the wake of two other 2015 attempts to put cheap machines in students' hands: the modular XO-Infinity laptop that picked up where OLPC left off, and weeks later Next Thing Co.'s $9 Debian Linux board, CHIP, which stripped a computer down to bare components. Endless's angle is different — a complete $169 machine bundled with its own OS, pitched specifically at first-time users in the developing world rather than hobbyists.
Funding it through Kickstarter rather than a donor program or retail channel makes it part of a broader wave of small companies using crowdfunding to prove demand for niche hardware before committing to manufacturing.
First-order effects
- Endless now competes head-to-head with XO-Infinity and CHIP for the same low-cost-computing audience, and its Kickstarter campaign becomes an immediate public test of whether buyers want an integrated OS-plus-machine package over cheaper bare boards.
Second-order effects
- If Endless funds well, the result pressures rivals like Next Thing Co. to justify their lower prices with more than specs — software, content, and out-of-box usability become the differentiators in the sub-$200 segment.
Third-order effects
- A pattern of crowdfunded machines succeeding where donor-funded programs like OLPC wound down would mark a shift in how computers reach the developing world: from philanthropy-led deployments to market-tested consumer products.
The trend: Low-cost computing for the developing world is migrating from charity-driven programs like OLPC toward startup-built, crowdfunded products that bundle hardware with purpose-made software.