$73 Netbook Shows Up In China

A lot of attempts have been made to achieve what seems to be the holy grail in affordable portable computing – the $100 laptop. It started a long time back with the OLPC project, and now we know that if something like that does turn up it will be called a netbook rather than anything else.

But so far, it has proved to be quite difficult to achieve. After all, there is a limit to how much quality and performance can be compromised upon. Even the venerable OLPC is hovering somewhere around the $200 mark instead of $100. Yes, that is still a feat worth recognizing.

So in such circumstances, it is natural to be shocked by the presence of a portable computer that has not only achieved the fabled $100 mark but has actually gone below it! Yes, this feat has been achieved by a device that is currently available in Shenzen China where it is selling for the equivalent of $73.

As is evident from the price, this is not something that will be lauded for its performance. So do not be shocked to hear that this device is powered by an ARM-based VIA processor that has all of 300MHz of processing power within it. That is exactly half the processing power of the iPhone 3GS. It comes with 128MB of RAM and 1GB of storage. It is running on Windows CE (at least they kept up some quality there).

The reason these devices go for Windows CE is because it is an embedded OS and not like normal OS’ such as XP and Windows 7.

The device has an 8.6 inch screen and it is presently only available in China. There is no news of its ever venturing out of the country but even if it does, I would like to personally dissuade you from even thinking about buying it.