Elonex to launch UK's first sub-£100 GBP laptop

by Stevie Smith - Feb 18 2008, 18:47

While leading chipmaker Intel Corp. ASUS’s Eee PC, and Nicholas Negroponte’s OLPC foundation are all busy vying for dominance in the budget/educational laptop market, UK-based manufacturer Elonex is preparing to sneak up on the blindside to throw its own processing hat into the value hardware ring in the form of the ONE. $UK-based Elonex PLC is to uncover its ONE at the Education Show 2008, marking the arrival of the UK\'s first sub-100 GBP laptop.$

UK-based Elonex PLC is to uncover its ONE at the Education Show 2008, marking the arrival of the UK\'s first sub-100 GBP laptop.

Scheduled for an official launch at the upcoming Education Show at the NEC exhibition hall in Birmingham, England (Feb 28 to Mar 01), the ultra portable Elonex ONE will arrive as the UK’s very first sub-£100 GBP laptop computer. Much like its Classmate (Intel) and XO (OLPC) rivals, the ONE is aimed specifically at the value and education sector, providing its users with wireless access to Internet, e-mail, word processing and spreadsheet applications. According to Elonex, these attributes constitute the “fundamental building blocks” that help form the foundation of a child’s ongoing computing skills throughout the education process.“The ONE removes the cost barrier that has prevented the one-laptop-per-person, large-scale uptake of computers in the education system that has for so long been just a pipe-dream.“ comments Sam Goult, Marketing Manager at Elonex. “Investment in digital technology is paramount to help the next generation achieve their full potential.”Citing a widening educational performance gap between the richest and poorest areas of the United Kingdom, Elonex is convinced that its low-price laptop will help restore that unfair advantage by eliminating the financial obstacle so-often preventing low-income families from accessing the benefits of modern computing.“We also expect the sub £100 laptop to be a huge success with adult learners, business users, people who are constantly mobile, elderly people and first time internet users,” continues Gault. “We anticipate the ONE will prove to be a success throughout the UK and we expect to bring low-cost computing to Europe and beyond.” Specifications thus far attributed to the Elonex ONE include a Linux-based operating system, three hours of battery operation, Wi-Fi connectivity, a flash-based internal hard drive, a robust outer casing, and a wireless music server -- all weighing in at less than a kilo. Bromsgrove-based Elonex is currently withholding the ONE’s complete specs list ahead of the device’s official unveiling at the Education Show.