High on a Hill

Thin plastic gadgets or thick bamboo gizmos?

Jul 22, 2009 15:50

I am a big fan of organic and natural practices and it seems some gadget manufacturers are dreaming of going in that direction as well. Although it is not yet practical, we've seen an Asus laptop in bamboo casing, Dell's desktop in bamboo casing and Fujitsu's laptop in wood casing. There's more. I've even read about a harddisk in wood casing, thumbdrives in wood casing, bicycles made of bamboo, etc.

It makes sense to use bamboo as it is lightweight and wild bamboo forests are plentiful, especially in our part of the world. Not only that, bamboos are the fastest-growing woody plants in the world. Some species can grow more than 40 inches in a day, imagine that!

As a child, I found bamboo forests to be rather mysterious. I remember visiting a tourist site with a bamboo bush that was said to flower only once every 100 years. Still, I just cannot imagine bamboo laptops being very popular. I am not sure if the bamboo trend will ever take off.

I reckon most people prefer thin-and-light gadgets as opposed to one that's encased in bulky wood. I could be wrong, though. What do you think? If all else was equal, would you go for a thin laptop encased in plastic, or a cool but bulky one wrapped in bamboo? For me, I would go for the bamboo machine as I truly enjoy natural woody materials.

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