Laptops soon offered at less than $100

Feb 9, 2005: Children in the developing world could soon have access to laptops that cost less than $100, thanks to the vision of the founder of MIT's Media Labs, Nicholas Negroponte, who is looking to sell the computers to governments around the world.

Negroponte wants the laptops to be used to as an educational tool in poor countries that cannot afford to buy expensive technology.

So far, he has gained the support of Motorola, Samsung, Google and a few other major corporations, who will help him make this vision become a reality.

It will run on Linux software, and will use cheap material to keep the costs down. Negroponte hopes that the computer will be beneficial to whole villages and could possibly be used to replace textbooks too.

Some teachers are sceptical, however, about whether these laptops will be beneficial, because they believe they will get broken.

There is no doubt about the benefits that these computers will bring to poor regions in the world, such as Africa, India and Latin America, so long as they are not broken easily. The business world will watch closely too, in case these new laptops manage to also encourage a drop in price for laptops in the rest of the world too.

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