Computer companies are keeping the cost of computing artificially high, asserts Internet guru Professor Nicholas Negroponte, head of the Massachusetts Institute Technology’s Media Lab. Visiting the UK last week to promote his new book, Being Digital, Professor Negroponte told a packed audience at the University of London that Andy [Grove] makes a faster processor and then Bill uses more power, Andy makes another and Bill uses more. Prof Negroponte predicted that within two years the Internet market explosion would force companies to go back to basics and start offering 80286-based bare personal computers with NetScape built in for $75. When someone in the audience from Silicon Graphics Inc tried to plug his company in the guise of a question, N egroponte told him, Your computers are too expensive, and you are miserly about contributing technology to universities.
