Foxconn working on 'sub-£100' ARM-based Linux netbooks

True Small, Cheap Computers at last?

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

8th September 2009 10:24 GMT

Will ARM-based netbooks retail for under £100? The Taiwanese contract manufacturer behind the Foxconn brand seems to think so.

A Hon Hai Precision staffer - one Young Liu, special assistant to the company's CEO - admitted this week that "we have a few smartbook projects and I think there is demand for these sub-$200 devices".

That's US dollars, by the way, rather than Taiwan's currency of the same name. That comes to around 97 quid.

Not that they're likely to retail here for that - import duty and VAT will ensure the cost is higher. But it does suggest that they will be rather less pricey than the £300-400 Atom-based netbooks typically command these days.

The netbooks will use Linux rather than Windows, Liu added. Undoubtedly, that's for cost-reduction reasons, though Microsoft has yet to say whether its upcoming netbook-oriented Windows 7 release, Starter Edition, will be tweaked to support ARM-based netbooks. ®