Martin Veitch

At a time of flaccid PC sales growth, Quanta is set to make 10 million systems within 12 months in a format that radically changes the cost model of laptops. You probably know it as "the $100 PC" and associate it with a charitable effort, but the rise of very low-cost PCs could have a significant effect on mobile computing in business and beyond.

The $100 PC has its roots in the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) non-profit association, which was the brain-child of the MIT's Nicholas Negroponte. Plenty of people have already trashed the concept and, mentally at least, I was one of them, but a couple of recent events make me believe that even if the project is not a huge success, it has enough interesting elements to merit the attention of computer makers and their customers.

One of them is that the $100 PC seems close to becoming a reality. In these days of multi-year delays, completing a project on time is always impressive, and this one is on track to go from announcement to shipping product in just two years.

Negroponte announced the plan in January 2005 and this month Quanta, a Taiwanese manufacturer, told Digitimes that it expected to make 10 million units in 12 months from early 2007.

What all this work adds up to is a 500MHz-processor-based ruggedised laptop that runs Linux, has Wi-Fi, a camera, three USB slots and an SD slot. There is no hard drive but there is 128MB of RAM and 512MB of Flash memory. The dual-mode screen is monochrome outdoors and colour indoors. A web browser and productivity applications will be bundled and power consumption is about a tenth of a commercial laptop. The system can be powered by a hand crank or generator.

The system, sometimes known as the 2B1, will lack internal mass storage and a conventional rechargeable battery but will look and behave rather like today's laptops costing hundreds of pounds more.

Despite this impressive progress, however, there's kvetching aplenty. Michael Robertson, founder of Linux desktop software vendor Linspire, compared the $100 PC to the "muffin stumps" episode of Seinfeld where Elaine’s gift of the lower parts of cakes is an unwanted charitable gesture.

A lot of others square off by what they stand to gain or lose.

Bill Gates and Intel's Craig Barrett, for example, believe what you need is more like a fully-fledged PC. "If you are going to go have people share the computer, get a broadband connection, and have somebody there who can help support the user, Jeez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you're not sitting there cranking the thing while you're trying to type," Gates has been quoted as saying. But to paraphrase Mandy Rice-Davis, he would say that, wouldn't he?

Others have suggested that the $100 PC could actually cost as much as $150. Perhaps they're right but as mobility, long battery life, wireless working and browser-based access to applications become critical to more and more staff, a lot of people will be watching the progress of the $100 PC.

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