Providing affordable, accessible and usable computers for the developing world has become an increasing priority for technology companies. VIA Technologies, manufacturer of chipsets, low-power processors and small-form factor motherboards, is ramping up plans to develop their own platform for computing in the developing world. VIA President Wenchi Chen’s vision is to deliver computing, “To the next one billion people,” based around providing low power PCs.

Developing markets frequently face the problem of fluctuating power sources stemming from their unstable infrastructure. Mr. Chen expanded on the problem: “Computers in the developing world have to operate with an unreliable infrastructure…Current and voltage can go all over the place. If people [in developing countries] are going to invest in a system then they need to ensure it will last five years. You have to build long-lasting devices.” VIA intends to tackle this problem by producing cheaper, low power components.

Mr. Chen stated it was a myth that computer manufacturers could sell computers to the developing world simply because they could hit the $100 price point. This was a swipe at Nicholas Negroponte, the founding chairman of MIT’s Media lab, who touted his $100 laptop computer for the developing world last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

VIA is planning a number of related launches this year that including: the “communication station” that would allow email, browsing and VoIP; a “media station” that would enable full computing but based on flash memory rather than a hard disk; and a full PC.