December 13, 2012 1:00pm by David Farrar

$99 laptops

Google began selling basic laptop computers to schools at a price of US$99 (NZ$120), meeting a price point that prominent MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte famously held out in 2005 as key to bringing computing power to the masses.

The internet giant will be offering the steep educational discount on Series 5 Chromebooks from Samsung through December 21. They typically retail for US$399.

Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child Foundation failed to meet his ambitious target, which critics said would be impossible to meet when he set it. His XO laptop currently sell for about US$200.

Still, he is widely credited with helping to launch the era of low-cost portable computing.

I think every kid when they turn five and go to school, should have a laptop or tablet or some sort of computer and Internet device. Of course you can only do that, if it is affordable and these initiatives make it easier to do so.

Google has details on their (US) initiative here.