Elonex announces £99 laptop

From Times Online -

British company Elonex is launching the first sub £100 (~USD200) British computer later this month and hopes to be making 200,000 of them by the summer. It will be aimed at schoolchildren and teenagers, and looks set to throw the market for budget laptops wide open.

Called the One, it can be used as a traditional notebook computer or, with the screen detached from the keyboard, as a portable “tablet” – albeit without the planned touchscreen that Elonex had to abandon to hit its £99 price tag. Wi-fi lets users access the internet or swap files between computers wirelessly. Data files can be stored on the laptop’s 1GB of built-in memory or on USB flash drives.

The One runs open source Linux, and features a word processor, spreadsheet, web browser and e-mail software. It has a 7in screen, a rubbery little keyboard and no CD drive. Other preloaded programs include IM, a photo editor, games and an MP3 player.

But open-source software has its problems. If no one owns it, there’s no one to complain to when things go wrong – and the One has no anti-virus or firewall software built in. The old-fashioned feel of the One’s programs could also flummox modern cyber-kids used to the slick menus, wizards and plug-and-play simplicity of Windows.

Of course, in the context of laptops costing more than £1,000 – and even copies of Microsoft Office software retailing at as much as £120 – paying £99 for a fully functional, internet-ready laptop packed with software isn’t a huge risk to take. There's also a model with Bluetooth and 2GB of memory (£120).

Elonex will be launching the computer at the Education Show at the NEC in Birmingham at the end of this month.