Portugal signs up for 500,000 Intel Classmate laptops
By Nilay Patel 
posted July 30th 2008 11:37PM
posted July 30th 2008 11:37PM
Looks like Intel's clearing out all its Classmate inventory in preparation for that new model -- it just inked a deal with Portugal for 500,000 of the chubby gray laptops. The Classmates will be manufactured in Portugal as part of the deal, and the final subsidized cost to students will vary based on each family's income, with a max of €50 ($78). Kids should be getting their new machines at the start of the new school year, so it looks like things should be moving along quickly here.
Allah akbar
First Comment !!
:P
You must be proud.
THIRD
I beat you. Then I called my own fail. Then I low ranked myself.
Yes, Allah is the greatest.
Unfortunately, you aren't too great.
@el taco
while your on a roll, go kill yourself.
@ El Taco
this is the 1st comment for me on engadget,
so technically you did not beat me, sorry....
..then he became a monk.
i see what you did there.
How can Intel be clearing out stock if these things are yet to be manufactured?
Touché.
Well played sir.
Intel are clearing stock of the crappy ULV based Classmate models.
The other ones, Intel are selling it at loss only reason for them is to try to block OLPC sales.
Goddamn corporate pigs having their better devices with an actual well defined role in education being chosen over open-source not for profit alternatives! I mean, can you even charge that with a crank or with solar power!?
@ abuzar:
take it easy man
I just get frustrated from all the "1st comment" or "1st post" I see a lot around here these days...
Just wanted to live the feeling of it... and now that I'm done, I can go home...
Dont get mad people, i'm just playin!!
back to the subject... I feel that it would be better off without windows
, I feel Linux would be a Lot better for education, oh yeah and cheaper too
It runs Windows XP, but around here in Portugal is it bound to be distributed with a local Linux distro, aka, Caixa Mágica.
No word on OLPC lately. Intel and Microsoft couldn't stand by and let another company sell something many peopel (not everyone) wanted.
I was just thinking the same thing earlier today. All the EeePC and Netbook frenzy cast it out from the limelight rather brutally, wouldn't you say?
Intel have sold 500 thousands of these as well in Indonesia back at May 2008.
They have a very powerful marketing engine, we gotta admit that.
Oops, the URL was not pasted in my previous comment; here it is :
http://harry.sufehmi.com/archives/2008-05-16-1650/
I am from Portugal and after hearing the news i laughed myself ...these go to children from 6 to 10 years....
although they're cheap...0€ - 20€ - 50€.... giving even more computers to children will make the future children's even more sedentary...
Ohh well our politicians can now say they made a good thing! YEAHHH....
Lots of details missing here. Production of these low cost PCs will start in September, current production capacity is only 40.000 per month with planned unspecified increase in capacity. The PC will be branded as "Magalhães" (Magellan) - it won´t have the Classmate brand. Production cost is 180 euros per machine! 500.000 will be sold in Portugal to schoolchildren between 6 and 11 yrs old for free, for 20 euros or for 50 euros depending on family income. The government is paying up the difference and expects to recoup part of the costs with machines that are bundled with broadband contracts. There are plans to export the Magalhaes to Europe, S. America and Africa. (from: http://ultimahora.publico.clix.pt/)
"500.000 will be sold in Portugal to schoolchildren between 6 and 11 yrs old for free, for 20 euros or for 50 euros depending on family income."
Sold to school children for free eh....
@Dillon
Stranger things happen in Portugal all the time, I kid you not!
Portugal could have gotten 1 million OLPC laptops for the same price. OLPC also is readable in the Portuguese sun, OLPC can be used to read every book from the whole world, OLPC has much better battery life then Intel ULV and Atom. OLPC has Mesh and an anti-stealing mechanism as well.
But hey, if Intel can give away 500 thousand laptops to Portuguese children, then why not. But I think it's probably the Portuguese tax payers that are paying probably more then $350 per laptop, thus twice the price of the much better OLPC laptop.
This time Portugal will appear good positioned in the ranks!!
Nice going!
We will appear to be developed in the statistics, but we will continue to be one of the european countries were you pay the higher prices to access internet.
I read the article, nice to know I can clear out my stock of media I'm yet to buy at a yard sale :P
However, even if Intel does sell these for a loss, what's it gonna do? They've got such a lead on AMD and have the ability to lose that much (I think anyway).