France gets cheap laptops: Intel launches ultra-low-priced notebook computers in France and rest of Europe
March 23, 2008
In France, Intel will introduce laptops costing only 225 euros or less by the end of this year.
The low-priced computers to launch this year in France, Europe and the US aren’t exactly new, being based on earlier models called Classmate designed for children in developing countries such as India and Indonesia.
Intel is keeping mum on what manufacturers will be involved in producing the new models for France and Europe, but said that the new generation would allow manufacturers to create different versions varying in elements such as screen size, their ability to support different peripherals and memory.
The original Classmate models were conceived for poor schoolchildren, but the versions launching in France and elsewhere at Christmas 2008 will not be toys. They are part of a worldwide trend that is seeing the cost of computer ownership plummet, making access to a personal computer more democratic. The recent introduction in France of a Taiwanese low cost PC (at around 299 dollars) caused a sensation, even though its popularity was hampered by its being based on the Linux operating system, unfamiliar to many consumer users in France.
The low-cost PC movement originated in the US with the One Laptop Per Child initiative and the XO computer, which costs around 200 dollars, but must sell millions to keep the price that low. With all the new competition around the world, that will not be so easy. Intel itself, now introducing its own low-cost model in France and Europe, was once a collaborator on the XO; now it is its competitor. And XO inventor Mary Lou Jepsen, resigned from One Laptop Per Child at the end of last year and started her own company, Pixel Qi, with the goal of building a $75 laptop by 2010. If the euro gets just a little weaker, that will mean in France it can sell for 100 euros or less.
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