Intel Adds Touch Screen Capabilities To Its Third-Gen Classmate PC

By Dee Chisamera
13:30, August 22nd 2008

Intel’s Classmate PC continues its ascending line on the low-cost laptop market by adding new capabilities and upgrades to its laptop, such as a touch-screen and tablet features, as well as an Intel Atom processor.

During the San Francisco Intel Developer Forum, the company explained that it will expand its offering of Intel-powered Classmate PCs with a set of new design features, including motion-sensing interaction ones, all to create more choices for the 1.3 billion students in the world.

“Understanding that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to education, we are passionate about transforming the way students learn,” said Lila Ibrahim, general manager of Intel’s Emerging Markets Platform Group. “We want to offer more choices to meet the diversity of student learning needs across the world.”

The new design is based on three major additions: the touch screen, with pen and on-screen keyboard for effective writing and drawing; the tablet mode, for increased mobility, with simple user-interface shell and quick launcher for tablet mode; and enhanced software, for an easier network connection and collaboration, as well as for an education-friendly content.

Intel revealed that the new Classmate PC will be available for shipping to OEMs by the end of the year. The new Classmate PC will co-exist with the current second-generation Classmate PCs running on Intel Celeron and Intel Atom processors.

Intel unveiled the first generation of Classmate PCs in May 2006, while the second generation came out in April this year. Intel is currently shipping its Classmate PCs in over 60 countries all over the world, while at the same time making them available in more than 20 languages, including Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai and more.

Less than one month ago, Portugal announced they were expecting to receive 500,000 Classmate PCs for students, under the Magellan Initiative, which is a program under Portugal’s education technology plan that aims at delivering Intel-powered Classmate PCs to half a million students in the upcoming school year.