CNet has a couple photos of Intel’s prototype computer for education, the Classmate PC notebook. For a much better look, World Congress on IT has a video here.
These classroom prototypes have 900MHz x86 processors, 7″ displays, hard-drive (possibly Flash drive), classroom management applications all for a target price of $400.
It kind of sounds like an Origami/UMPC with a keyboard. Of course, the Classmate PC is missing the touch digitizer, as well as the Tablet PC OS, and it sports a notebook form factor rather than a slate unit. What’s the benefit of not having these three features? It appears that it helps to cut the cost in half. Hmmm.
Now, of course, these are not shipping units, so anyone can pick a price, but I bet that Intel’s estimate is not too far off from what we’d see in shipping units sold in large volume. Yes, that’s the key. Volume. Origami’s claim a higher price not because of the Tablet features, but because of their low volume.
So all this makes me wonder why Intel’s Classmate PC doesn’t provide Tablet features. Wouldn’t a teacher want to grade student papers with a digital pen? Are students only supposed to think in typed text? What about drawing? What about working out math problems? What about exploring geography?
Here’s one guess as to why the Tablet features aren’t included: Durability. A low-cost Tablet PC would probably use a touch digitizer. However, with heavy use the displays begin to show lots of wear. This wouldn’t be good for a PC that needs to last several years. If the display was easily replaced that might be another matter, but then again, this would only be practical if the cost was very low. Also, a touch digitizer would require a stylus for use when handwriting. That’s not a big problem–but it is a tiny one. What do I mean? The little stylus often included with touch displays are simply too small and easy to lose. There’s also the issue of a swivel hinge. Would one be needed and would it be rugged enough? And, lastly, there is cost concerns over the Tablet OS versus standard XP.
Despite all of these issues, it seems that a Classmate Tablet PC would be a perfect companion device for Intel to be demoing. Hopefully, Microsoft and Intel can work together to build a showcase Tablet PC version of the Classmate. I’m sure it costs a pretty penny to build a functioning prototype, however, what a great opportunity to continue to spread the word about the value of the Tablet form factor in education and encouraging people to think in terms of its viability. Not only that, the MIT OLPC prototypes already boast inking and a “reading mode” (display can be flipped around and folded down like a Tablet), so just imagine having not only OLPC going around essentially showcasing the Tablet form factor as well as Intel. What an investment this would be.