14 DAY TRIAL // It seems the world of lightweight notebooks is on a quick move these days. Just when you thought that OLPC's XO laptop had competition coming from INTEL's Classmate PC, another sub-notebook comes in to play. Encore Software based in Bangalore, India, announced this week that they too are sending about 50 pieces of their Mobilis product to the officials in Brazil. The Mobilis PCs will also be used in schools.
Where they will nevertheless meet their INTEL and OLPC brothers. This is quite a bang and I bet that INTEL wasn't expecting this. It seems that more manufacturers are gaining an interest in developing low-cost mobile solutions. And Brazil is the perfect playground for them, since all three developers have chosen the South-American country to host the show. I can understand that a little competition is healthy for the audience, but this is beginning to transform into a fully fledged war.
As for the laptop itself, the Mobilis runs a Linux based SO and comes packed with some features that are unavailable with the XO or with INTEL's laptop. The screen is either a 7-inch TFT LCD or 7.5-inch STN LCD and comes coated with touch screen interface and stylus, built in keyboard, Ethernet and modem and a battery pack that lasts about 6 hours. The notebook also comes with CF, SD/MMC memory card slots, stereo audio speakers and microphone and as an option you can add GPRS/GPS features. And all this weights only 750 grams. Nice result coming from Encore.
Interestingly, though somewhat useless if you think about the target of this product, the Mobilis also comes with an optional biometric fingerprint scanner that can be used as a security measure. A nice addition is the long lasting lithium-polymer battery but this pack will probably up the price a bit. Speaking of it, there is no information regarding the projected price tag.