Swedish company Medison has unveiled the first $150 laptop called the Celebrity. It comes with the Fedora Linux Operating System pre-installed and takes 4-6 weeks. The $150 unbelievably includes the shipping and handling too.

Medison Celebrity™ is a high quality laptop for the everyday user. It is adapted to functionality that does not demand the highest performance, but rather to everyday tasks such as e-mailing, surfing the Web, word processing and working with spreadsheet programmes. Built-in Wireless and slim design makes this a truly flexible and mobile laptop for the active user.

Is this likely to be too good to be true? Is it a hoax? Many have asked those questions including Larry Dignan (ZDNet) and Matthew Elliot (CNet Crave). In fact, they did order it last week. We’ll just have to wait and see in 4-6 weeks. Orders are fulfilled through 2checkout.com.

At this price, it is even cheaper than Nicholas Negroponte’s $175 OLPC computer and Intel’s Classmate PC.

Here is Medison’s CEO Valdi Ivancic take on why it is so cheap:

“We see this from a democratic point of view where we believe everyone should be able to afford to have a laptop. The other reason is that we have our own plants where we assemble our laptops.”

As for the computer’s specification:

# CPU - Intel® Celeron® M Processor 370 (1.5 GHz, 90nm, FSB400, 1 MB L2 cache, uPGA478)
# DISPLAY - 14.0″ WXGA (1280×768) TFT
# HARD DRIVE - 40 GB
# DIMENSION - 333(W) x 243(D) x 24/33.(H)mm (front/back), 2.2Kg with 6 cells Lithium-lion battery
# MEMORY - 64-bit wide DDR data channel, One 200-pin SODIMM socket, supporting DDR 333/400, 256 MB Expandable up to 1GB, based on SODIMM Modules
# STORAGE - One changeable 2.5″ 9.5mm(H) HDD, Supporting Master mode IDE ATA-33/66/100/133 (Ultra DMA), One changeable 12.7mm(H) CD/DVD Combo
# VIDEO CONTROLLER - VIA PN800 integration, Shared Memory Architecture up to 64MB, 128 bit 3D graphic engine, Support analog monitor pixel resolution up to 1920×1400, Support two displays dual view
# KEYBOARD - A4 size keyboard, Built-in Touchpad with scrolling function
# SOUND SYSTEM - AC’97 2.2 Compliant Interface, 3D stereo enhanced sound system, Sound-Blaster PROTM Compatible, S/PDIF Digital output (5.1 CH), 1x Built-in Microphone, 2x Built-in Speakers
# I/O PORTS - 3x USB 2.0 ports, 1x External CRT monitor output, 1x Headphone jack, 1x Microphone jack, 1x S/PDIF output jack, 1x RJ-45 port for LAN, 1x Line-in jack, 1x DC-In jack
# PCMCIA - 1x Type II PCMCIA socket
# COMMUNICATION - 10/100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet on board, 802.11g MiniPCI Wireless LAN
# POWER - Full Range 65W AC adapter - AC input 100~240V, 47~63Hz, DC output 20V, 3.25A, Removable 6-cell Smart Li-ion battery pack, 4000/4400mAh

Company Links:
Medison Corporate Website
Medison Celebrity Product Page

Headquarters Address:

Medison Europe Limited
27 Ruffets Wood
Gravesend, Kent
DA12 5JQ England