By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

You may recall the $100 Laptop project, hand-cranked laptops that Intel Chairman Craig Barrett has called a “gadget“. The project was founded by Nicholas Negroponte, founding chairman of MIT’s Media Laboratory.

Negroponte failed to reach agreement with Microsoft on the usage of Windows CE in the laptop, and has since decided on Linux. Since then Microsoft has started to talk up its own concept: a specially configured cellular phone turned into a computer by connecting it to a TV and a keyboard.

Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co-founder and chairman, demonstrated a mockup of his proposed cellular PC at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, and he mentioned it as a cheaper alternative to traditional PC’s and laptops during a public discussion here at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Craig J. Mundie, Microsoft’s vice president and chief technology officer, said in an interview here that the company was still developing the idea, but that both he and Mr. Gates believed that cellphones were a better way than laptops to bring computing to the masses in developing nations. “Everyone is going to have a cellphone,” Mr. Mundie said, noting that in places where TV’s are already common, turning a phone into a computer could simply require adding a cheap adaptor and keyboard. Source: New York Times

We Say: I’m not sure how accurate “Everyone is going to have a cellphone” is, and I’m also not sure how much, if any, the decision against Windows CE had to do with Microsoft’s stance. Apparently Microsoft offered an open-source version of Windows CE, and Apple also offered free versions of OS X, but both were turned down in favor of Linux. However, the Times said Gates has been privately bitter about the rejection.

Of course, most phones today run Symbian. Any Windows Mobile based phone would seem to be out of reach price-wise for this project. Negroponte said he was not opposed to the idea of building a low-cost computer using a cellphone, but that a laptop was shown to be a better solution. At any rate, I hope the project continues to get attention and funding, no matter what the final design. That’s the most important thing.