• Forbes, Wednesday, December 23, 2009 2:07 PM

Forbes takes a look at what could someday be the world's cheapest PC, and cost a mere $75. One Laptop Per Child, MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte's non-profit initiative to put educational laptops in the hands of developing world schoolchildren, is presently upgrading its XO computer, better known as the "hundred-dollar laptop." The new machine, known as the XO-3, is slated for a 2012 release, yet is apparently still more of a pipe dream than a product.

"Early designs for the PC reveal a minimalist slate of touch-powered electronics that drops practically every feature of a traditional computer except its 8.5-by-11-inch screen, a scheme that would shed all of the first XO's child-like clunkiness without losing its simple accessibility," according to Forbes. Yves Behar, founder of FuseProject, which designed the both the original and the XO-3, tells the magazine that he hopes to shrink the frame around the XO-3's display down to practically nothing, opting for a virtual keyboard instead of a physical one, and no buttons.

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