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Laptop for the poor launched

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and a leading US IT expert Nicholas Negroponte on Wednesday unveiled the bright green-and-yellow working prototype of a US$100 laptop aimed at millions of schoolchildren in poor countries.

The robust wind-up laptop with low power consumption is meant to be the backbone of an educational project to distribute the Internet-connected computers at no cost to their future owners.

"It holds the promise of major advances in economic and social development, but perhaps most important is the true meaning of one laptop per child," Annan told reporters at the World Summit on the Information Society.

"Studies and experience have shown repeatedly that kids take to computers much more readily, not just in the comfort of warm, well-lit rich country living rooms, but also in the slums and remote rural areas of the developing world," he added.

Nicholas Negroponte, of the Massachussetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory in the US said he was aiming to launch the laptop in about two years.

He said he hoped small quantities, several thousands, would be produced this year and more than 100 million by the end of 2007.

The non-profit "One Laptop per Child" project is aiming to eventually open up the way for supplementary sales by a commercial partner in wealthy countries.

However distribution in the primary developing markets will be financed by donors or national governments and channeled through the same networks used to bring textbooks to schools, Negroponte said.

Initial launches are being lined up in six "big" countries -- one in the Middle East, two in Asia, one in Sub Saharan Africa and two in Latin America.

Negroponte only identified Brazil and Thailand as the "most enthusiastic" governments. But discussions are also being held with China and Egypt.

Talks were underway with several potential industrial partners including one major computer maker.

Negroponte said the laptop would rely on economies of scale to keep the price down, as well as some innovative technology especially for the color screen and web connections.

The inventors also want to rely on free distribution "open source" software.

Supporters of the project include the search engine Google, computerchip maker AMD, and US-based media magnate Rupert Murdoch.
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