Laptops for all senior school children.

[CHA54]

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/90551,det-wa...w-students.aspx

At least NSW DET are going for the extreme-tight**** route. I feel sorry for whoever wins that tender.

[SuperDave]

Is it just me or does 180,000,000/200,000 = $900 and not $500, or is it working on a subsidised system?

I'm curious to know how they expect the batteries to last for 4 years without failure.

[CHA54]

they expect the supplier to replace the battery when the performance degrades (not when the battery is no longer usable). Basically, they put that clause in there to get a couple of free batteries per laptop over the 4 year period, basically guarantee's that any profit margin in the laptop (will be netbooks in this case) is lost.

[Leroy]

post deleted

Edited December 6, 2008 by Leroy

[SuperDave]

they expect the supplier to replace the battery when the performance degrades (not when the battery is no longer usable). Basically, they put that clause in there to get a couple of free batteries per laptop over the 4 year period, basically guarantee's that any profit margin in the laptop (will be netbooks in this case) is lost.

I wouldn't be surprised if no one puts a tender in. My lap top chewed through 3 batteries in 12 months. I didn't got any more as the warranty period finished :P

I know that the mini lap tops might not meet there screen/keyboard size requirements, but they can be had for about $6-700. I'm sure if you order 200,000 of them HP/Acer/Asus would be able to offer a discount to get them pretty damn close to the magic $500 mark. If the article did the maths wrong and the actual price the NSW Government is after is $900, then there are plenty of lap tops on the market already that are around that price. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a lot of whining about how slow the lap tops are though ;)

[CHA54]

I'm pretty sure the $500 base price quoted in the article is correct, given the min spec listed in the tender. From Dell the Mini9 meets the requirments and it's full retail cost is $549 so quite easy to meet that spec. I'd hate to be a student stuck with an Intel Atom powered PC though...

The guys writing the tenders usually pick a model they want, base the requirments around that model, then put it out to market to go through the paces.

[Tats]

Funny that - the first bit of university graffiti I ever saw was on a toilet roll holder at the Uni of Adelaide. It said: "pull here for arts degree"

Saw the same thing at UOW - "Arts Degree - please take one"

[MR22ZZ]

There was a period of time at Uni of Adelaide that they handed an 'Arts Degree' to all Engineering students, who succesfully completed the enrollment process, at their induction.

[Simo]

I have decided to take my old man up on his offer of uni starting 2010, I bet I have the ***** of it within the first few months and not finish it :P

Edited December 9, 2008 by Simo