The company is pushing to bring the second generation of the Classmate PC to schools and retail outlets in the U.S. and Europe this year, according to Agnes Kwan, a spokeswoman for Intel. The company is expected to disclose details about the U.S. version of the laptop in April.
"For the past 18 months, we were very much focused on classrooms in emerging markets," Kwan told Computerworld. "But we do have a select number in mature markets, and we've been getting really good feedback in those mature markets."
Kwan noted that Intel has been getting a lot of interest in the Classmate PC from educators in the U.S., as well as from people interested in buying the laptop for home use.
"The schools in the U.S. are interested in getting a rugged and affordable design, as well as a fully functional PC," she added. "The kids in the mature markets have largely had experience with technology, and they expect more features and memory, more power. We're working those expectations into the new design, as well."
The second generation of the Classmate PC, which was designed by Intel and has been sold by vendors like India's HCL and Indonesia's Zyrex PC, should come in under $500, according to Kwan. The laptop runs on a Celeron processor now, but Kwan noted that in the future it will run on Intel's Atom processors, a new family of low-power chips.
The 45-nanometer Atom chips, which were previously code-named Silverthorne and Diamondville, are based on a new microarchitecture and are designed for small devices and simple Internet-centric computers. The new processors are expected later this year.
Kwan said Intel sees the Classmate PCs as part of the company's so-called netbook category of computers, which consist of inexpensive, portable machines with small screens. The netbooks are largely focused on the education market.
