Intel Netbook Laptop PC launched

Intel Netbook laptop is out. Intel, at the Intel Developers Forum in Shanghai, announced the launch of the Netbook Laptop, which is an affordable, rugged Internet-centric computer platform. These simple-to-use PCs have wireless capability, longer battery life, water resistant keyboards and are more shock resistant if dropped.

Intel has targeted the Netbook Classmate PC at the education market, of students, teachers and parents. Intel has manufactured the Netbook in such a way that it can be customised for individual requirements. For the Netbook Laptop, Intel has tied up with over 80 hardware and software vendors.

In a statement accompanying the launch of Intel Netbook laptops, Intel said that only 5% of world's students have access to a computer or the internet. Intel feels that education is the best example where technology can improve lives. With the help of educational tools like the Intel Netbook laptop, teachers can create fun learning experiences more easily.

"We have also been touched by children's excitement when they are inspired by technology. The Intel-powered Netbook laptop classmate PC is one of the ways we support the IT industry in spreading the benefits of technology in education for children around the world," Intel said.

The Intel Netbook laptop will be manufactured by CTL. Though Intel claims the Netbook is manufactured for the classroom market, this classmate computer has specifications enough to suit a full-fledged user.

The Netbook laptop sports and Intel Celeron M CPU, a 915GMS chipset, 512MB of RAM (upgradeable to 1GB), a 9-inch, 800 x 480 LCD display, 40GB hard drive, 802.11b/g, SD / MMC reader, and a full complement of standard ports and jacks. The Netbooks come with Windows XP as standard option, and has a VGA webcam.

The top range of the Netbook series has a 9-inch LCD screen, 6-cell battery life, 512 MB memory, a 30 GB HDD (hard disk drive) storage and an integrated webcam.

Software and content for the Netbook laptop PC will be available in eight languages. It will come pre-installed with some educational software too. Though Windows XP is standard operating system platform in the Netbook, it can also run some variants of Linux open source operating system.

At the developers forum, Intel also announced that future models of Classmate PCs (In the Netbook version and later versions) will come the more advanced Intel Atom processor. Intel has built the Intel Atom processor as an energy-efficient, cheaper computer chip targeted for wireless capability to small mobile computing devices such as Netbooks.