Non-profit group to ship low-cost laptops in October

By Jim Finkle

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. nonprofit group expects to start delivering millions of low-cost laptops to poor children around the world in October, a move that could prompt microchip maker Intel Corp. to follow suit.

The One Laptop Per Child Foundation's effort is the most ambitious attempt to equip poor children in developing countries with computers, and one that analysts say could shape PC industry growth in developing markets.

Intel has been distributing laptops to children in developing countries for years, but it has yet to put them into the kind of mass production planned by the OLPC foundation.

The project's founder, MIT researcher Nicholas Negroponte, said in an e-mail interview that the foundation will start ordering components in bulk for the devices within the next month, so that production on an initial batch of 3 million machines can begin in September.

The green-and-white, kid-friendly laptops that can be powered with hand cranks when electricity is not available will cost $176 apiece.

"It is all breaking news, with many things converging in the next 30 days: hardware, software and country agreements," Negroponte said in the e-mail.

He is trying to sell the devices in some 30 countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Libya, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States. He declined to say where he expected the orders to come from before they are finalized.

Intel, the world's largest chip maker, typically fills orders for hundred of units to several thousand, while OLPC seeks them in the hundreds of thousands.