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July 29, 2008

Alibaba.com is now selling what it calls the world's lowest-cost laptop. At just $130, it's a fair deal if you are willing to sacrifice some hardware limitations and a few compromises.

The Impulse NPX-9000 laptop has a seven-inch LCD screen and comes with the Linux operating system. It has a 400-MHz CPU, 128 Mb of memory, 1 Gb of 'flash' storage and an optional wireless networking stick.

It also includes office productivity software, a Web browser and some open-source multimedia software.

There's a little problem though. The NPX-9000 laptop needs to be bought in minimum quantities of 100 units or more.

The new Linux laptop is available on Alibaba.com through the online store of Taiwanese company Carapelli.

To this day, the lowest-cost laptop was known to be One Laptop Per Child's (OLPC) XO laptop, available at $188 for a limited time in November and December 2007. While a technological landmark, it had some hardware shortcomings such as a slow processor and limited graphics capabilities.

The laptop hints toward a growing trend of rapidly declining computer and CPU prices. On July 21st, a company called CherryPal introduced a $249 mini-desktop, also running a 400-MHz processor, with 256 Mb of RAM and 4 Gb of internal flash storage.

But wait, there's more! Former OLPC Chief Technology Officer Mary Lou Jepsen said she would bring out a $75 laptop by 2010. Now running her own company, Pixel Qi, she cited the falling prices of RAM and components as a way to further bring down laptop prices even more.

The low-cost laptop industry's poster child is Asustek Computer's Eee PC, which was introduced in 2007 and sold 350,000 units in its first quarter alone.

For just $300, the cheapest Eee PC has an 800-MHz Intel processor, 512 Mb of memory and 2 Gb of flash storage.

Source: Alibaba.

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