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MIT to Develop a $100 Laptop
This near-barebones laptop computer will primarily be targeted at the developing countries, to narrow the digital divide that is expanding rapidly between industrialized nations and developing countries. The task MIT has set is amazing: to produce a multimedia and internet capable laptops without topping $100 for production costs per computer. The idea is that these computers would be sold to governments in developing countries for further distribution. The history of such cheap computers in the less than $300 category is not encouraging for the MIT project. Still in the markets, there's the Simputer, a $220 handheld computer that hardly anyone takes seriously (and isn't selling well at all). However, MIT is not alone in this effort. They've listed corporate support from Advanced Micro Devices (expertise in processors), Google (expertise in internet technologies), and News Corp (expertise in multimedia and satellite services). Some details are already known of the $100 laptop: it will operate on Linux, it will have a battery that can be recharged by a hand crank, and the screen size will likely be a rear-projected image display of 12 inches.
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