One Laptop plans to ditch the keyboard
Foundation expects its next-generation computer to cost $75
The Cambridge foundation that helped inspire the current boom in cheap laptop computers is now working on something even more radical - an ultracheap computer with no keyboard.
Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation, revealed plans for the new computer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab yesterday. Due for release in 2010, the new machine will be smaller and lighter than the foundation's current XO laptop, which went on sale last year.
But the new device will feature two video display screens, one of them replacing the keyboard found in other laptops. The screens will be touch-sensitive, and can be configured to act as a traditional keyboard. But the screens can also serve as a single large viewing area.
"You can fold it flat and use it as one continuous display," said Negroponte. This would make it suitable for a variety of uses, from reading an electronic book to playing a game of chess.
The current XO laptop was originally supposed to sell for $100. Though Neg roponte still expects to reach this goal, the device presently costs $188. However, Negroponte said the foundation has set a target price of $75 for the next-generation laptop. He said that this could be achieved thanks to falling prices for flat-panel screens, the most costly of all laptop components. Negroponte predicted that the price of the screens could be brought down to about $20 for each computer.
A veteran of the team that developed the original XO laptop, Mary Lou Jepsen, is working with OLPC to design the device. Jepsen holds a doctorate in optical sciences and invented the technology that makes the XO laptop's screen readable in bright sunlight. Jepsen left the foundation last year to launch Pixel Qi, a start-up that will make the screen technology available to commercial laptop makers.
Computer industry analyst Roger Kay, of Endpoint Technologies Associates Inc. in Wayland, said that a keyboard-less laptop might be less susceptible to dust and water damage - a serious threat in the impoverished communities where the laptops will be deployed. "Without a keyboard, you've got a much greater ability to seal the unit," Kay said.
But he noted that OLPC is trying to persuade governments in developing countries to buy the laptops and distribute them free to children. Kay questioned whether the governments would spend millions of scarce dollars on a device that's so different from standard computers.
So far, OLPC has distributed about 600,000 of its current laptop model. The foundation's bid to create super-cheap laptops has inspired businesses to market low-cost laptops of their own, aimed at more affluent consumers. Taiwanese computer maker AsusTek Computer Inc. expects to sell 5 million of its EEE minilaptops this year, at prices ranging from $200 to $600. Hewlett-Packard Co. has also entered the market with a $500 minilaptop.
Kay said that if OLPC succeeds in designing a keyboard-free laptop at anywhere near the planned $75 price, it could spawn a host of similar products. "If nothing else, it stimulates a lot of other people to look at this market . . . and maybe offer competing products on a commercial basis."
Negroponte also said yesterday that the foundation will resume its Give One, Get One program, which enables people to buy two of the laptops and donate one or both to a child in a developing country. Negroponte said the program will resume in August or September and will be open to buyers in North America and Europe.
He said the previous program, which opened last year to people in North America, enabled One Laptop to distribute 30,000 additional laptops to children in Rwanda, Mongolia, and Haiti.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com. 