$150 Laptops to Get Rival in Brazil

$150 LAPTOPS TO GET RIVAL IN BRAZIL
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Alan Clendenning]
Intel said Tuesday its diminutive low-cost laptop will be evaluated in Brazil next year alongside a cheaper alternative from a nonprofit group seeking to bring computers to poor children worldwide. The company said it would donate 700 to 800 of the $400 "Classmate PCs" to the government for a large evaluation in schools. Intel's laptop is about half the size of a traditional laptop, weighs 2.9 pounds, and has a seven-inch color screen. It has wireless Internet capability and employs flash memory instead of a hard drive, but does not include a CD or DVD player. Intel has already tested the computers on a smaller scale with students and teachers. The deal to test the Classmate PC comes after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva last month received a prototype of a $150 laptop developed by the U.S. nonprofit group One Laptop Per Child, which began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. One Laptop Per Child expects to sell several million devices to governments in developing countries, beginning with Brazil, Nigeria, Libya, Argentina and Thailand. Brazil has 187 million citizens, but tens of millions don't have access to a computer or the Internet. Public schools offer little or no computer training, and some don't even have electricity. The Brazilian government wants to bridge the divide, and President Silva believes laptops for children will improve education.
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