Pixel Qi Attempts to Produce $75 Notebook

Using technologies developed for the OLPC, Pixel Qi will try to drop the price even further on its own commercial variant, which it hopes to sell for $75.

As if the One Laptop Per Child program hadn’t cut the price of notebook computers enough with its $188 XO-1 Laptop, a new company going by the name of Pixel Qi says it will attempt to produce a similar laptop for only $75.

The company openly acknowledges that the new laptop will be a spin-off of the XO-1, citing the ultra-low-cost laptop as an inspiration for a new sort of hardware design that emphasizes starting with a clean sheet rather than ratcheting up previous technologies. Pixel Qi’s CEO, Mary Lou Jepson, was previously the chief technology officer for OLPC, and invented its sunlight-readable display technology, which the company also plans to use in its own machines.

How will they do it? According to the company’s own statement, “prices for next-generation hardware can be brought down by allowing multiple uses of the key technology advances. Pixel Qi will give OLPC products at cost, while also selling the sub-systems and devices at a profit for commercial use.” Take that as you may.

No release date or even projected availability has been announced for the Pixel Qi $75 laptop, so we’ll have to wait and see if and when the project comes to market, and whether it manages to stick to the target price, as OLPC was famously unable to.