The world’s largest chip maker company,
Intel, has partnered up with
Asustek, a leading
motherboard making company, to launch $200
laptop computers . Production is to start soon.
Intel says that the $200 dollar
laptops will be distributed in developing
countries to help the underprivileged with their
education needs.
It is claimed that the Intel-Asustek's low-cost laptops will be fully-fledged and low-end
notebooks . This is compared to the child-friendly laptops produced by the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organisation that are green and white coloured. The OLPC laptops can also be powered with hand cranks when electricity is not available, and cost about $180 each.
Intel-Austek started their move after the OLPC laid the foundation of $100 laptop for educational purposes. The Intel-Austek, now claims that it would deliver millions of its low-cost notebooks in October.
Sean Maloney, the head of Intel worldwide sales and marketing, during a
telephone interview said, "It’s another way of solving the same problem. The world is a big place and there's room for lots of these things."
Maloney says that these cheap laptops will be powered by lower-end
microprocessors . The laptop will be having traditional hard drive or flash drive, 7 – 10 inches screen and wireless Internet facility. He further said that the cheapest model would cost $200, while other upgraded
PC version would cost nearly $400 or $500. The operating system would be
Linux operating system or
Microsoft Windows XP.
Maloney disclosed that Intel is introducing 3-series chipset family. The new chipset family would regain the ground lost over the last two years to smaller, scrappy rival AMD.
Maloney said, "These chipsets will be the basis for most of the PC industry for the next 18 to 24 months."
"They're not just 45 nanometer ready, but they're much more
energy efficient than previous versions."
Maloney further disclosed that company has plans to release Intel’s Core 2 Extreme
mobile processor that is expected to ship in the third quarter of this year.
Maloney said, "You are seeing an emergence of
notebook gaming ."