Microsoft's educational IQ PC for India
It looks like Redmond will be dipping its toes into the affordable education-PC pool, at least in India, with its new IQ PC, part of the Unlimited Potential venture (the program behind the budgeted software being sold to developing countries) . The project, while not as ambitious (or portable) as the OLPC or the Classmate, will be tested in the cities of Bangalore and Pune, with a country-wide rollout in November. The computers will sell for RS21,000, or around $500, and will be based on AMD processors and built by Zenith and Wipro. The systems will run a combination of online and offline content centered around "edutainment" and educational programs. In addition to the hardware, Microsoft has trained over 100,000 teachers in PC-based instruction, and they're continuing to develop technologies for use in classrooms where multiple students will share computers. It sure is good to see Bill putting that money to work.
