User Centric vs. Buyer Centric

OLPC's and fuseproject's XO is a unique product in that it was praised and awarded for it's concept and design, but somewhere something was lost in the implementation. Niti Bhan of the Emerging Futures Lab argues that good design must extend all the way through the value chain. The OLPC XO has not been widely accepted or used by its target audience. So much for user-centric design, right?

Well, let's look at the alternative, buyer-centric design. What if OLPC had designed its product with governments in mind. Or let's just pretend that OLPC were Microsoft since we all know how that would have went down. Microsoft has the business acumen to make things happen and get its product past governments by crippling it with security and closed technology and then marketing it as the most advanced operating system ever. Sure, if this product were forced on the consumer, they would have something, but is something always better than the alternative?

What they would have is a crippled and complicated product that is of no use to those who need simple educational software (forget those who are illiterate).

Indeed, OLPC has switched from its innovative interface on an open-source platform to Microsoft XP. And better yet, Microsoft has already placed restrictions on how good such low-cost computers running its software can be. For Microsoft, is this smart BoP penetration through "restricted give-aways" or simply forced corporate colonialism?