Elonex to announce £99 Eee PC rival

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Elonex, the British PC supplier is entering the popular ultra low-cost laptop market with a £99 device that will compete head on with products from Asus and the OLPC project.

Elonex is pitching the ultra portable machine, called the One, at the educational sector, the original market for the Asus Eee PC. As with the Asus device, Elonex will also offer it to consumers. The Eee PC was the surprise hit of last Christmas, and was sold out throughout December.

The specification is basic: the One has only 1GB of flash memory, although a Wi-Fi adapter is included. A 2GB version with Bluetooth will also be available for £120.

The One has a detachable rubberised keyboard, allowing owners to use the device as a tablet. However, Elonex has ditched plans to make the 7in TFT a touch screen, which rather hampers its use as a tablet.

Like the Eee PC, the One will use a Linux distribution, bundled with a word processor, spreadsheet, internet browser, photo editor and an email client. No further information is available at the moment on the specifics of the software and the hardware.

"The One removes the cost barrier that has prevented the one-laptop-per-person, large-scale uptake of computers in the education system that has for so long been just a pipe-dream," says Sam Goult, marketing manager at Elonex. "Investment in digital technology is paramount to help the next generation achieve their full potential."

Goult denies rumours circulating online that the One is simply a re-badged offering from Chinese manufacturer Fontastic.

Elonex will be releasing the One notebook at the 2008 Education Show to be held in Birmingham on 28 February.

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