My instincts are with Bill

Microsoft thinks cell phones are a better way of bringing computing to the poor, rather than the $100 laptop.

I think he is right.

The largely illiterate poor need to communicate by voice apps like phones, video-phones, etc. and have less need for “computing” per se. Internet browsing and Email are both possible from cell phones, and those are the next layer of apps that the slightly literate segments of this vast world population would use.

And what’s very attractive is that Microsoft can put some of its massive cash reserve to use, and subsidize the effort to reach the poor, rendering giant strides in Development. Negroponte simply doesn’t have that kind of deep-pocket to reach into.