MIT announced today that it has chosen Taiwan"s Quanta, the world"s largest maker of notebook computers, to produce its ultra-low cost laptop developed by Nicholas Negroponte, the chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology"s Media Lab.
The laptop, designed to be sold for $100 each to governments of developing nations, is being used in part of Negroponte"s One Laptop Per Child initiative. Under the agreement, Quanta will use its engineering resources to develop the laptop for the first half of next year while working with One Laptop Per Child on the possibility of a commercial version.
The laptops are expected to be available fourth quarter of next year with initial orders between 5 and 15 million units. Linux versions will be available for around $100 and decrease in price over time.