OLPC ASP to ultimately shrink to US$50

From DIGITIMES posted Thursday 5 July 2007 -

Notebooks under MIT advocated "One Laptop Per Child" (OLPC) program are in a strong position to be the hottest PC for emerging markets and prices may shrink to US$50 in 2009, said Mary Lou Jepsen, the founding CTO of the program.

Given that the first-generation OLPC notebook, dubbed XO, differs itself from other low-cost PCs in terms of commercial interests, Jepsen is confident that OLPC will be a successful low-cost PC deployment model for emerging and under-developed regions.

When Quanta Computer starts shipping OLPC notebooks in September, Jepsen said the total should reach 3-5 million units within one year's time. Clear demand growth should be seen in the upcoming half year hitting a monthly figure of one million units by end of 2007, she noted. Shipments should further pick up to 150 million in the second year.

Having set the goal to shrink the price of OLPC notebooks further, Jepsen stressed that the display panel used will be a key to achieving this target. She added in saying that a low power consumption designed panel will be a vital requirement for future OLPC notebooks. The next-generation OLPC notebook may come with built-in WiMAX connectivity, she added.

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Does this mean the Asus Eee's price may go down to under US$50?