Intel low cost laptops

Intel Corp., the world’s largest chipmaker has announced the collaboration with Asustek Computer Inc. , the world’s largest maker of computer motherboards, to produce notebook PCs costing as less as $200. This will be targeted at the mass markets in developing countries.Earlier, Intel has distributed laptops to children in developing countries but it still has to put them into mass production which was planned by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Foundation.

Intel and Assutek’s low-cost laptop would be full-fledged, low-end notebooks, while the OLPCs are green-and-white plastic, kid-friendly laptops that can be powered with hand cranks when electricity is not available costing about $180 per laptop.

“It’s another way of solving the same problem. The world is a big place and there’s room for lots of these things,” says Sean Maloney, head of Intel worldwide sales and marketing in a telephone interview ahead of his keynote speech at Taiwan’s Computex, the world’s No. 2 computer fair.