14 DAY TRIAL // The latest news on Intel's next-generation Classmate PC, a machine designed specifically for the developing markets, says that it will come with a rotating touch-screen panel. The same reports also have it that the touch-screen panels will be manufactured by the world’s largest contract maker of notebooks, Quanta Computer, which has already received orders for the new machine from Intel.
It seems that Quanta has started work on these orders, with expectations for the earliest next-generation Intel Classmate PCs to be shipped to customers in the first quarter of next year, states a news article published on DigiTimes.
The Intel Classmate PCs are gaining more and more popularity every day, at least according to what figures show. While in 2007 the machine registered total shipments of 100,000 units, in 2008, the shipments are estimated to reach half a million units. The same projection points to the fact that almost two million units will be shipped during next year.
Intel Corp. has confirmed a few times before that the next-generation Classmate PC will be manufactured by Quanta. The giant chip maker also announced that the previous-generation PC meant for emerging markets would continue to be shipped along with the new machines. The company also said that it planned to keep the original OEM partner for the first Classmate PC, the Elitegroup Computer System (ECS).
The Santa Clara based company announced a new generation of the Classmate PC at Intel Developer Forum in April this year. Although not yet official, the next-generation PC is expected to be powered by an Intel Atom processor, and also to include up to 512MB of DDR2 memory, as well as a 30GB parallel ATA hard disk drive. The machine will come equipped with a 9- or 7-inch touch screen, and will also feature an integrated web-cam.