For many, access to computers and high-speed internet connections has never been more crucial.
We rely on them to complete schoolwork, search for jobs, watch movies, access healthcare information, and find relationships, to name but a few.
While a computer and internet access is nearly ubiquitous in the U.S. — 83.8 percent of U.S. households reported computer ownership in 2013, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — nearly five billion people have no computers globally, and sixty percent of the world sits outside the internet's reach.
Endless, a San Fransisco-based start-up, is hoping to close the divide with a user friendly and affordable desktop aimed at emerging markets.
The computer, powered by a smartphone processor, was tailor-made for people in developing markets. Keeping in mind that people in third world countries have limited access to the internet, much like early PCs, Endless is pre-installed with over 100 apps that are accessible offline, ranging from farming to health. It also comes with Wikipedia, Khan Academy, curricula, and educational games.
Starting at $169 for a 32GB computer, the egg-shaped operating system doesn't include a monitor or keyboard. As a way to reduce cost, Endless was designed to be connected to a television set.
"A keyboard isn't expensive and the monitor, well the one thing I did see in travels around India, Brazil, Thailand other places was, without fail, HD-quality televisions in most homes," CEO Matt Dalio told USA Today. "I thought the TV could be used as a monitor and we could rework the smartphone technology to make the computers affordable.”
In April, Endless launched a Kickstarter to raise funds for their international outreach marketing campaign, #EndlessAdventuras. The company amassed $176,538 to help bring awareness of the product to its first markets, Mexico and Guatemala.
Local
Operation #EndlessAdventuras is currently underway in Mexico. Members of the Endless team are traveling through the Latin American country aboard a retrofitted schoolbus that is functioning as an offline cybercafe, stopping in rural communities, and introducing Endless to prospective users for the first time.
