I don't understand why is it a huge disappointment. My fascination with computers started with an old programmable calculator my dad brought home once. And its price was more than $10 which was still OK for Russia in early 90s.
I could have died of happiness back then if I could put my hands on a $30 worth of 2009 hardware in that little plastic box.
When I first heard about this I wondered what a 10$ laptop could be. I pictured a TI-86 graphing calculator with network access, and a VGA or TV out. Thinking back on what I did with my graphing calculator in high school I pictured a whole new generation of software hackers vs code monkeys that might start coming out of India and other developing nations.
The problem is from the picture it's missing the keys. So it's hard to think of someone hacking a way on the thing when there is no way to input new data while waiting for a bus. If we are thinking about a cheep computer then a commodore 64 for 10$ could be easy to build but that's not what they are doing.
I could have died of happiness back then if I could put my hands on a $30 worth of 2009 hardware in that little plastic box.