New Tata Car For $2,500 And A Laptop For $75

Lots of attention being given to Tata Motors ability to introduce a small, five passenger car for $2,500 . If Tata can come up with a car that resets the pricing model of the car industry, does all that talk of an under $100 laptop really seem that extreme?

I remember an email exchange I had with (former) One Laptop Per Child CTO Mary Lou Jepson. Jepson at OLPC did what she said she would: came up with a new laptop display technology that was cheaper, better and more energy efficient than anything else around. Now she has formed a company Pixel Qi which as their website states is pursuing a $75 laptop. That would be a price that would change the laptop industry just as Tata's $2,500 car will change the auto industry.

I wrote about that new display technology in 2006 and the article includes a more detailed discussion of how the technology was developed.