Intel Unveils PC for Developing Nations

Poppler writes "Intel has announced it will produce a PC aimed at developing nations, the 'Community PC.' Instead of giving out minimal PCs to as many individuals as possible, Intel wants to sell these machines to 'kiosk owners' who will rent out use to their village. Price TBA. How does this stack up against the $100 laptop, in terms of helping the developing world?"

Comments

Been there seen that...

[xtracto]

It is called "cafe internet" in developing nations (like Mexico) where people can rent a PC for 1 hour for as low as US$2 (I think even $1 in Mexico City...

Re:Q. What's new here?

[Acer500]

It depends on the area it seems. Here in Uruguay, cyber-cafés (kiosks or whatever you want to call them) are everywhere (including 100 person villages in the middle of nowhere), and so it is in Argentina (one fifth of their population uses them according to the Buenos Aires government), Chile and coastal Brazil at least.

All three countries (Uruguay, Argentina and Chile) already have a similar plan, also sponsored by Intel - see http://www.mipcuruguay.com.uy/plan_antecedentes.ht m , but I'd say that it's behind the times - there are several sellers of "clone" computers that beat that price, often with cheap AMD chips, and sellers of used European and US Pentum IIs that are more than enough for Internet access.

According to the C-Net article, this is basically more of the same program, but aimed at developing countries with harsher conditions (India, Africa I guess, tropical Brazil and Mexico).