Intel Shows Off Low-Cost Mobile PCs

On Wednesday, Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini showed off the company’s new $400 mobile personal computers, meant for affordable usage by teachers and pupils across the globe, the Associated Press reports via the Boston Herald.

Otellini was speaking in front of an audience at the World Congress on Information Technology in Austin, Texas.

The PCs, code-named “Eduwise,” contain built-in wireless capabilities, and they’ll be able to run Microsoft Windows or Linux operating systems, according to the AP.

“What we want to do is accelerate to uncompromised technology for everyone in the world,” Otellini said, according to the AP. “No one wants to cross the digital divide with yesterday’s technology.”

The light-blue accented Eduwise machines flip open and snap closed like a pocketbook, the AP reports. Special built-in software will enable users to watch presentations, take exams and ask questions of teachers or others via wireless Internet connections, according to the AP.

Intel designed the machines, but its computer-producing customers will make them, the AP reports.

The new PCs are a component of Intel’s recent pledge to invest $1 billion in developing nations over the next five years to bolster technological efficiency and Web usage. For related coverage, read Intel to Foster Web Usage in Developing Nations.

Similar initiatives have been launched by Microsoft and AMD.

Otellini also announced that Intel will provide low-end PCs to 300,000 teachers in Mexico by the end of 2006, according to the AP.

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