Taiwan's Quanta starts mass production of 100-dollar laptop

Business News

Nov 14, 2007, 4:51 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan's Quanta Computer Inc said Wednesday that it has begun mass production of the so-called 100-dollar laptop computer, aimed at letting children in developing countries go online. 'We take orders from our client, the One Laptop Per Child foundation, and the computers go where OLPC wants them to go,' said Huang Chia-you from Quanta's Education Computer Unit. Huang refused to discuss details of the mass production because the foundation is in charge of the project but said it started in the company's plant in Changshu in Jiangsu province on China's east coast. According to news reports, Quanta began mass production of the laptops on November 6 at its new plant in Changshu, a two-hour drive north-west of Shanghai. Quanta has not disclosed the production volume, but news reports said Quanta has doubled its manufacturing capability to cope with orders for the computers. The foundation - which is overseeing the development, manufacture and distribution of the laptops - said children in developing nations could start receiving the computers this month while residents in the United States and Canada who participate in the programme to buy one of the laptops for themselves and at the same time donate one to a child in a developing country would start receiving their laptops in December. Quanta is the world's largest contract laptop maker. It joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nicholas Negroponte, the man behind the foundation's idea, in designing the low-priced computer. The foundation has already distributed samples of the computer to poor countries, but in recent months, it has hiked the computer's price several times - to 150 dollars in February, 188 dollars two weeks ago and the current 200 dollars - to cover production costs. It said it believes the costs would go down as production continues. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

View blog reactions

If you liked this story please support M&C and Buzz the site on Yahoo.

Latest Headlines in Business

Talkback

Add your comment (no registration required)

page: 1

Help The Tamils IN Sri lankaNov 14th, 2007 - 05:24:11

www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=23761

Tamil People Being Killed By the Sri Lankan State Army, Can the Western World Help ? US or UK Stepin ?

Googl/US/UK/MONEY/POWER/SEX/Dell Laptops

Report this comment

page: 1

Add your comment (no registration required)

Latest from M&C Blogs

Biden: good choice or admission of Obama's weakness? - Global Eye on August 25, 2008 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Are political campaigns wasting their money on undecided voters? - Global Eye on August 22, 2008 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

Musharraf exits the Pakistani stage as storm clouds gather - Global Eye on August 20, 2008 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

Upside-down House - The World in Pictures on August 4, 2008 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Church of our Lady in Dresden, Germany - The World in Pictures on August 4, 2008 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

Giant Orange - The World in Pictures on July 15, 2008 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

Business

Taiwan's Quanta starts mass production of 100-dollar laptop

Business News

Latest Headlines in Business

Talkback

Latest from M&C Blogs

Similar articles

In Monsters and Critics

Corporate

The Fine Print