Priority Electronics Blog

For years self dubbed tree huggers have been publicizing the world’s need to go green in order to protect the planet from harmful chemicals that could potentially impact the environment. Now it seems you can’t open a magazine or turn on the TV without seeing news about how to go green. Even celebrities have joined the cause with fundraisers and eco-friendly clothing lines. The go green movement has grown to the point that now you can go online and find laptops that are safer for the environment.

The Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) has rated almost 300 laptops in an effort to give the public a place to find environmentally friendly laptops. EPEAT has a list of requirements that notebooks must meet in order to receive either their bronze, silver, or gold seal. According to their website bronze is awarded to laptops that meet all their required criteria, whereas silver means a notebook met all their criteria in addition to half the optional criteria they have for laptop computers. For gold, the product must meet all criteria as well as 75% of all their optional criteria for an eco-friendlier product.

According to the Environmental News Network (ENN) among the greener laptops reported through EPEAT, they favor the Lenovo Thinkpad X300, Toshiba Portege R500-S5007V, HP 2710p Tablet Computer, and the Apple MacBook Air.

On ENN’s news website they chose these laptops for their gold seal from EPEAT as well as for the efforts Lenovo, Toshiba, HP, and Apple went through in order to decrease hazardous chemicals in their notebooks. The Lenovo Thinkpad X300 has mecury-free LEDs in the monitor, contains an energy efficient processor, and their packaging materials are 90% recyclable. These were big pluses for ENN.

The Toshiba Portege R500-S5007V among other Toshiba notebooks has introduced alternatives to phthalates and other hazardous chemicals. The HP 2710p Tablet Computer is also energy efficient. In addition HP has said they would try to eliminate hazardous chemicals from their laptops including PVC. Finally the Apple MacBook Air contains an LCD screen that is mercury as well as arsenic-free. The laptop has an aluminum case that is recyclable and has PVC free components.

Several other laptop models including some Dell Latitudes, Toshiba Tecra’s, and HP Elitebook laptop models made the list.

It looks like going green has gone beyond media attention and into our electronics. Going green has moved beyond a trend and is turning into a lifestyle.

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The goal of many laptop computer companies is to create a laptop that costs only $100. The purpose of this goal is to offer a less expensive laptop option for developing countries. Keeping the price at $100 would help developing countries expand their school curriculum and offer the opportunity to raise their status in the world. Recently, Gartner, Inc., an analyst group announced that though this dream of the $100 laptop is nice, it may not happen in the near future.

According to Gartner the cost of creating, packaging, shipping, and of maintaining permanent technical support makes it nearly impossible to achieve the goal of offering a laptop for such a low price. In their announcement analysts also mentioned other concerns.

Annett Jump on a press release on Gartner’s website stated that, “The economic benefits of IT literacy in emerging markets are currently driving the push for the $100 PC but there are many open questions that remain…These include determining the relevant hardware specifications, power availability, availability and cost of Internet connection, as well as providing adequate finance and payment options for emerging markets where funds may well be extremely limited.”

With such a great goal, it is of little wonder that the push for a cheap laptop is the top goal for many laptop companies. This goal is one that Gartner doesn’t deny is worthwhile; however, their main point is that there are more factors to consider for this cheap laptop including what specific curriculum needs are present in the different countries they will service as well as who will train teachers to incorporate this new technology into their daily routine.

So, when does Gartner believe the laptop industry will achieve this inexpensive laptop? According to their publication, it’s at least two to three years away. Although hardware has gotten cheaper and will most likely continue to get cheaper, things such as hardware and technical support are likely to stay at the same price. Until these additional factors become cheaper Gartner believes that $100 is far too low a goal. Currently laptop manufacturers have been able to reduce costs to between $150 and $250.

What Gartner believes will emerge as a more lucrative and expanding market is the mini-notebook sector. Jump was quoted as stating, “We expect to see increased product innovation in the PC market during the next few years…Mini-notebooks will create opportunities to reach many buyers across all regions, both in mature markets as additional devices, and in emerging markets as PCs.”

Maybe $100 for a laptop is just a dream, but it’s not a dream that won’t come true. This goal just needs to be refined a little more before it goes from dream/goal to reality.

For more information on the Gartner web release, you may go to their company website www.gartner.com.

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