Medison Celebrity

Swedish company Medison has gotten a lot of attention in the Swedish and in the international press for their promise that they will soon be able to ship a complete laptop for only US$ 150.

Many call it a big scam, but Medison is holding their ground. Today Medison held a press conference in Stockholm where they presented the supposed laptop.

• This is not a hoax, said Valdi Ivancic, the CEO of Medison, according to IDG.se

The machine has gotten the name Medison Celebrity. Who produced the machine is still a secret. IDG.se took a look underneath the machine, and noticed that the label with the serial number had been scraped off…

Medison claims this is to hide the name of the producer, so that the producer does not get into trouble with its other customers for supplying so cheap to Medison.

The producer is not the only one who does not want to be associated with the company, however. According to the Swedish magazine PC för Alla, does Medison send its customers to Infocare for support, even though they don’t have a deal with this support company. Medison claims this is just a misunderstanding.

How the Swedes managed to do what the OLPC-project does not manage with its US$ 100 laptop is hard to say. OLPC still has not managed to decrease its price even though they aim for large volume, and even though they have some of the worlds best-known companies on their side.

We have very low margins, said the Medison management at the press conference, according to IDG.se.

In addition to that Medison is pursuing a different business model. Among other things, this includes selling advertising space on the company’s website. An ad that will be only shown to visitors from a specific country will cost US$ 15,000 while an ad that will be shown globally and that will be online for a longer period can cost as much as US$ 3,000,000.

So far no advertisers have purchased any advertising space yet, but Medison is optimistic anyway.

• When the first laptops will be delivered there will be clear deals with our partners, said Ivancic.

The first laptops will be shipped in the coming 2 weeks, according to the company.

For anyone who wants to take the risk, order a machine here.