The project aims to make inexpensive laptops to enable every child in the world, especially those from poor countries, to have access to knowledge and modern forms of education.

    BEIJING, Dec.15 (Xinhuanet) -- Taiwan-based Quanta Computer Inc, the biggest manufacturer of notebook computers in the world, has been selected as the original design manufacturer (ODM) for the $100 laptop project.

    The decision was announced Tuesday after the non-profit One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) board reviewed bids from several possible manufacturing companies. 

    In announcing the selection, OLPC Chairman Nicholas Negroponte said, "Any previous doubt that a very-low-cost laptop could be made for education in the developing world has just gone away."

    One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is a Delaware-based, non-profit organization created by Nicholas Negroponte and other faculty members from the MIT Media Lab. The mission of the organization is to design, manufacture, and distribute inexpensive laptops to enable every child in the world to have due access to knowledge and modern forms of education.

    The laptops will be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. As envisioned by Negroponte, the laptop would have wireless Internet capacity and run on some variation of open-source, Linux-based operating software. It would include word processing, a Web browser and e-mail. 

   In response, Quanta Computer Inc has pledged to bring the product to market by the fourth quarter of 2006.

   Quanta Computer Inc. was founded in 1988 in Taiwan. With over US $10 billion in sales, the company is a leading provider of technology products and solutions to Fortune 500 companies, including Dell, HP, and IBM. The company also provides a full array of mobile phones, LCD TVs, and servers and storage products. Enditem

    (Agencies)