Big Blue Touts Netbooks for the Developing World

Walk into any coffee shop and you're bound to see at least one espresso-sipping patron clacking away on a tiny but fully functional "netbook," which is essentially a portable computer optimized for Web-browsing. They're compact, pack many of the bells and whistles found on full-fledged laptops, but aren't necessarily cheap.

Some of these netbooks are a couple hundred dollars, which is still prohibitively expensive for most people living in places like sub-Saharan Africa. In an effort to reach this market, IBM has released a Linux-based software platform for netbooks, as reported by Bloomberg.

Dubbed IBM Client for Smart Work, the open-source, Linux-based software platform will first be sold in Africa, according to the company. As noted in the Bloomberg article, the netbook software is targeted more toward businesses in the developing world than to average consumers:

"Netbooks, smaller and cheaper than traditional laptops, may allow companies in emerging markets to equip more employees with e-mail and word processing software, IBM said."

The move may help IBM gain market share, so this is not a purely philanthropic move, but sometimes market-driven solutions bring about better results through win-win relationships. So hats off to Big Blue for making a commitment to expanding access all over the world.

Photo courtesy of IBM