(Column) - If you shop around, you can actually get a functional computer for $500. But as we become more budget conscious, $500 seems to be a bit much for a standard machine, so what’s our next target? Why, It’s an over ambitious $100 notebook. How companies accomplish this is their business; what we are interested in is what they ship out for a product when all is said and done. As of now, however, there is one thing that interests me even more, and that is, why would they want to sell me a $100 notebook in the first place?

Let’s look at the people/companies who are currently showing interest in this project. It is being headed by MIT’s founding chairman Nicholas Negroponte with support from AMD, Apple, Google, Red Hat, Brightstar and News Corp. with $2 million in donations from the aforementioned companies.

AMD, although the world’s second largest chipmaker, is weak (whether directly or indirectly) to break Intel’s dominance in the microprocessor market, though its market share do show a steady increase. Although it has beaten Intel for the past few months in sales, it’s not yet the market leader, and tapping into new markets, such as this one, early will allow it to generate revenue from outdated technologies after they have surpassed their life cycle in developed markets.

Google. Well, it’s getting into everything, so why not this? Plus, it probably needs some positive publicity with all the mounting criticism and flak it has received for its business tactics. Also, if Google does indeed get into wireless, voice communications and other services, it would have a fair lead over others due to early access. And finally, the more $100 notebooks they sell, the more people will go online, thereby boosting Google’s revenue. Is it far-fetched at the moment? Quite possibly, but Google doesn’t waste resources for the good of humanity, you know.

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