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Intel Calls $100 Laptops Undesired Gadgets

Posted by Zonk on from the missing-the-point dept.

dolphinlover writes "Craig Barrett, Intel Corporation chairman believes that the $100 laptop computers to be manufactured by the MIT media lab run by Nicholas Negroponte beginning in early 2006 are merely 'gadgets', making them unattractive to consumers who will be disappointed by their 'limited range of programs'." From the article: "Negroponte said at their launch in November the new machines would be sold to governments for schoolchildren at $100 a device but the general public would have to pay around $200 -- still much cheaper than the machines using Intel's chips. But Barrett said similar schemes in the past elsewhere in the world had failed and users would not be satisfied with the new machine's limited range of programs."

10 of 429 comments (clear)

  1. IBM said nobody would want a PC by stankulp · · Score: 3, Funny

    Deja vu all over again.

    --
    We must be alert to the danger that public policy could become captive to a scientific-technological elite. - Eisenhower
  2. Undesired if you used a Pentium 4 by GeoffSmith1981 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe Intel is just jealous because to hand-crank power a Pentium 4 laptop would take you a few hours.

  3. limited range of programs by 7macaw · · Score: 5, Funny

    You can only get finite-sized memory for $200 and therefore the range of programs is limited. For $2000 the amount of memory you get is... oh wait

    --
    Grundes!
  4. Re:Bah, Sayeth Scrooge by mymaxx · · Score: 3, Funny

    Some 90 percent of Sri Lankans were literate but only 10 percent computer literate, he said. Class, today we will be learning about Intel...(projector displays blue man group ad for intel)...

  5. Racism? by NotoriousGOD · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think someone should change the name "Negroponte" to something more politically correct. Like "Africanamericanponte".

    --
    Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.
  6. Re:Bah, Sayeth Scrooge by paranode · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey as long as it runs Linux, the children of the world can play Nethack. It brings a tear to my eye.

  7. Re:Oh, what a surprise! by paranode · · Score: 4, Funny
    I'm surprised that you actually think people in North America are gonna give a flip about wether it's intel or AMD. Heck, all they care is that they're getting a $200 laptop!

    Well, until they see that the blue "e" is missing and they ask why "the Internet" isn't installed.

  8. Re:Intel is just... by mlg9000 · · Score: 4, Funny
    Intel is just afraid that people will come to realise that you dont need a $500+ processor to surf the web, and you can get by just fine with 4 year old technology.
    Yeah but can you browse the web AND run all your spyware at the same time with a 4 year old processor? That's what your average home user does.
  9. He's right! by lheal · · Score: 4, Funny

    I believe that there's need for maybe 5 inexpensive laptops in the world.

    --
    Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
  10. Obligatory by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just a matter of time before some opportunist does thus:

    My name is Ebou Nogamono and I need your help in retrieving 14,732 gold coins from Croesus' Vault...

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar