The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) group has slowly gathered support but more importantly started to question what people really need in a laptop. Their $100 laptop may still cost $200 but has started to connect some 1.4 million children and education in the developing world and has been adopted in around 34 countries.
They have now announced the XO-3, a slim touchscreen tablet PC and claimed it will be available in 2012 at a price well below $100. This not only starts to change computing as we know it in the third world but also could have a significant impact across all markets.
The concept new machine has touchscreen, a camera, induction charger, and a carrying ring on one of its corners.
Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of the group, has said that he hoped that industry would now copy the design for the XO-3. Well it certainly offers a real potential to all educational markets and potentially knocks the socks of devices such as ereaders.
The big question is whether the major manufacturers will compete and adopt cheaper and greener technology or continue to over engineer their offers and produce them to be obsolete in a couple of years?
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