Attack Of The Cheap Laptop
Best part, is analysts are saying that the arrival of these is going to lead to a significant price drop in the higher-end models…
BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday sub-$300 laptops initially designed for poor children will soon be available to U.S. and European consumers in a move that could further push down computer prices.
PC makers in the United States and in Europe will sell a yet-to-be-unveiled, second-generation version of the Intel-designed Classmate PC for $250 to $350, said Lila Ibrahim, general manager of Intel’s emerging market platform’s group, in an interview with Reuters.
“This is a very big deal,” said Laura Didio, an analyst with Yankee Group who follows the personal computer industry.
While the machines are intended for children, analysts said the launch will add momentum to the low-cost computing movement — and will likely mean this year’s bargain-basement laptops will have more power than in previous years.
“Particularly in a recession year, quality low-cost products are going to move well,” said Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group. “But the key is for them to be quality.”
He said while he hasn’t yet seen the machines that will be on sale this Christmas, he suspects consumers will be able to get “a pretty decent” laptop for less than $600 and perhaps for less than $500.
Didio said retailers might throw in another $50 to $100 in rebates or other incentives.
Laptop prices have been under extra pressure since last year, when Taiwan’s Asustek Computer Inc (2357.TW: Quote, Profile, Research) introduced the $399 Eee PC, which has flown off store shelves from Asia to North America.
The machine runs on the Linux operating system, and people used to Microsoft’s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Windows and Apple’s (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Mac OS X operating systems have had trouble adapting to the system, Enderle said.
The new, cheap laptops being developed from Intel’s technology will likely run on Windows, he added.
The movement toward low-cost computing was also spurred by the XO laptop, the brainchild of Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nicholas Negroponte and his One Laptop Per Child Foundation.
The foundation began producing a laptop running on Linux at a cost of $188 in November. They sold them in the United States and in Canada for $400 through a charity drive that also provided one machine to a poor child overseas.
The chipmaker has conducted pilot tests of the Classmate PC at schools in Texas, Oregon and California, along with some schools in Australia, said Intel spokeswoman Agnes Kwan.
Intel said manufacturers in India, Mexico and Indonesia already have begun selling Classmate PC laptops on the retail market.
To date, Intel has sold fewer than 100,000 of the Classmate PCs, but plans to ramp up production in 2008.
Intel declined to identify the PC makers or discuss the features of the second-generation machine, which has not yet been released in developing markets, at the request of the companies.
It has already begun work on a third model, the Classmate 3, said Ibrahim.
The second- and third-generation models of the Classmate PC design give manufacturers flexibility to build a range of laptops with different memory configurations, screen sizes and peripheral devices including cameras, Ibrahim said.
Inventor Mary Lou Jepsen, a scientist who developed the XO Laptop, resigned from the One Laptop Per Child Foundation at the end of last year and started her own company Pixel Qi with the goal of building a $75 laptop by 2010.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston and Duncan Martell in San Francisco; editing by Carol Bishopric/Jeffrey Benkoe)
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Hope those high end model drop in price sometime before november. That is when I am planning on buying a laptop. Right after MCT, and before com-school.
March 19th, 2008 at 7:00 pmHell yeah, that would be great. I have always wanted a laptop and its not that i couldnt afford one its just that they are so much more than my desktop i ended up buying and there are lots of things i can do with this desktop pc. mobility would be nice sometimes though.
March 19th, 2008 at 7:03 pmThis will undoubtedly make your “standard” laptops cheaper -always a good thing. I just spent $1300 on a new laptop (posting on it right now - I love wireless) and while I have no regrets about the price, paying less is always nice. As I said though I really can’t complain, I got a killer machine that so far has handled everything I’ve thrown at it. Considering what I spent on my desktop PC a few years ago plus upgrades, I’d say I spent about the same amount.
March 19th, 2008 at 8:50 pmI’m typing this on an Asus Eee laptop. It’s tiny, light, supposedly rugged (I don’t plan on testing that) and powered by a fairly intuitive Linux distro. It’s pretty slow, but it more than serves. This is the future, and these things will only get faster and (hopefully) cheaper!
Good time to be a geek.
March 19th, 2008 at 8:53 pmI use a Nokia N770 Internet Browser that cost me $110, even cheaper now if u look around. While it does not let u download and save files, for tooling around the Internet virtually anywhere via WiFi or Bluetooth through your cell phone, it is a great device. I can be driving 60mph down the road and can surf the internet, speed is decent and manageable. I have 2 of them and keep one in each vehicle for anytime I need to get on line while away from home. Runs an Opera Browser, can make VOIP calls w/ a free downloaded applications.
March 20th, 2008 at 12:25 amThe new models are a bit more but have more functionality.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16858618001&ATT=58-618-001&CMP=OTC-yah00TT&nm_mc=OTC-yah00TT&cm_mmc=OTC-yah00TT-_-Ultra+Mobile+PC-_-Nokia-_-58618001
yeah, we have them about the same prices here too.
March 20th, 2008 at 1:47 amMy hubby wants to get one ; he needs to register his results when he’s on agylity contests ; he wanted to get me one too, uh, dunno if we can manage photos and drawings with it . I have always dreamt of an apple
My pad’s not much bigger than a shoebox, so I took the laptop route. Being able to take it anywhere is great, and its not hard to find hotspots.
March 20th, 2008 at 7:51 amJoe;
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:44 amSurfing while driving? Yer a menance. The brain really can’t cope with both those things at once, no matter what you tell yourself.