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According to ZDNET, John Negroponte announced a couple of days ago that the first iteration of the “$100 laptop” from the One Laptop Per Child initiative will be closer to $130 to $140 dollars. Even at $130, this computer still comes in at a pricepoint that governments like China, Brazil and South Africa could consider for their students, if way beyond the education budgets of less-developed countries.
Sales to governments are expected to begin in April 2007. There will be no sales to individual consumers, unfortunately. Negroponte promised that the price of the laptop should be down to $100 by 2008.
Meanwhile, Intel announced earlier in May that they were developing a $400 laptop for the developing world that they were calling the “Eduwise” notebook. Unlike the OLPC laptops which will run a stripped down version of Linux, the Eduwise machines come loaded with Windows XP.
The Eduwise prototype shown at a conference in Brazil was apparently made of wood, so this might just be PR and vaporware for the moment. Still its great to see computer manufacturers competing to deliver low-cost, education-focused tech solutions for the developing world.
Negroponte’s now $130 PC due in April 2007 by ZDNet‘s Dan Farber — Nicholas Negroponte showed off the latest prototypes of the fabled $100 PC. It’s not longer a $100 PC, however. The ruggedized, two pound Linux desktop (Fedora) system, with mesh networking will sell for about $130 to $140 (san shipping) to governments starting in April 2007. Negroponte expects to reach the $100 price point by the […]