p2p news / p2pnet: Intel boss Craig Barrett has said in no uncertain terms that MIT’s laptop for children in poor countries is unrealistic.

The idea is to produce a hand-cranked computer at rock-bottom prices so it can be made available in countries such as Africa in the hundreds of thousands.

“I think a more realistic title should be ‘the $100 gadget‘,” Barrett said recently. And, “gadgets have not been successful.”

But Quanta Computer, the world’s largest computer maker, says it is, in fact, doable and, what’s more, that it’ll start shipment in the fourth quarter of 2006, “and turn out five to 15 million US$100 laptop computers each year,” says TechNewsWorld.

The MIT plan is based on helping people to communicate but understandably, Quanta is in it for the money. It could be “a business worth $20 million for the next five years,” the United Evening News has Quanta spokesperson Lee Tu-ching, saying, according to TechNewsWorld, which goes on:

“Lee said Quanta Research Institute is taking part in the $100 laptop project ’so it puts Quanta on the same par as global technological giants and is the entry ticket for Quanta to join in the manufacturing of next-generation products’.”

Quanta says the goal is achievable, “if MIT can reach an agreement with component manufacturers to supply components which are 70-80 percent cheaper”.

The project will be led by MIT and Quanta will be in charge of assembling the components supplied by MIT, says the story, adding:

“Other participants include Advanced chip maker Micro Devices as well as Brightstar, Google, News Corp, Nortel and Red Hat.

But feasibility isn’t the only consideration.

“Although Quanta claims no harm from these low-margin orders, investors’ concern was reflected in the trading of Quanta shares which fell 3.2 percent on Thursday at the Taipei Stock Market,” TechNewsWorld states, adding:

” ‘Investors fear that Quanta’s accepting the $100 laptop orders could prompt Quanta’s clients to demand Quanta cut price,’ Oliver Fang, an institutional sales analyst from the Yuan Ta Core Pacific Securities, told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur.”

Read:-
$100 gadget – Intel boss scorns MIT laptop, December 9, 2005
TechNewsWorld – Quanta to Build $100 Laptop for School Children, December 15, 2005

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