Google Inc began selling basic laptop computers to schools at a price of
$99, meeting a price point that prominent MIT professor Nicholas
Negroponte famously held out in 2005 as key to bringing computing power
to the masses.
The Internet giant said on Monday that it will be
offering the steep educational discount on Series 5 Chromebooks from
Samsung Electronics Co through December 21. They typically retail for
$249.
Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child Foundation failed to meet
his ambitious target, which critics said would be impossible to meet
when he set it. His XO laptop currently sell for about $200.
Still, he is widely credited with helping to launch the era of low-cost portable computing.
The
creation of relatively low-cost laptops from his foundation pressured
industry giants including Intel Corp, Microsoft Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co
and Dell Inc to develop inexpensive versions of their products such as
the netbook.
© Thomson Reuters 2012