TouchSmart: The value is not the box. The value is HP Apps.

In a facilitated user network economy, the value is in the network. User networks that co create the product are the defensible advantage because they take time. Money can not buy volunteers nor can they buy time.

Go HP! If you connect the Indigo piece, you could control the whole enchilda. That's the printernet part. Talk to CGX and the Indigo users groups. The white label version of MarketSplash could be the on ramp.

Regarding high school education, consider wikipedia or the gezillion other wiki's out there. I have little doubt there are English language geek evangelists, probably in Germany or New Zealand that can write the apps that render wiki pages into print pages. Put the touchsreen on every MFP and Indigo. Make the appropriate deal with the wiki owner. Many are start ups who will welcome a new revenue stream. Many more are non profits who are looking for ways to earn some money to keep it going.

One user experience is:
"Would you like to find out more about that? Let me print out the wiki article, and you can start from there. After you've had a chance to do some reading, come back to me and I'll try to answer other questions that occur to you."

The other user experience is:
"That's not the way we do things around here. Go print out the rules. Carry them with you. And don't let me find you breaking them again."

from FT.com by John Gapper -
Apple’s network helps prevent a fall:
"Steve Jobs is returning to his post as chief executive of Apple, following a liver transplant, to some good news. On Sunday, Apple’s iPhone 3GS, the latest version of its device, passed 1m sales in three days.

Mr Jobs permitted himself a boast that “customers are voting and the iPhone is winning”. This was aimed at Palm’s Pre, which is the best effort to match the iPhone, but trails it in one vital regard.

Owners of iPhones can choose among 35,000 applications, most built by other companies, that run on the phones. Competitors including Palm and Google have not yet matched this creative alliance.

The fact that Apple persuaded others to rally round has helped to shield it from the margin squeeze in the personal computer and consumer electronics industries. It has become the hub of a creative network.

Lots of businesses are suffering in the recession but that masks a longer-term trend that only relatively few – Apple among them – have managed to buck. This is a squeeze imposed by intensifying competition across many industries