Intel chairman Craig Barrett has criticised a planned $100 laptop aimed at bringing computers to developing economies.

At a press conference in Sri Lanka, the chipmaker's former chief executive insisted that there will not be a market for the devices, calling them a "$100 gadget", according to Reuters.

Barrett argued that a computer's features are more important than its price.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) introduced the One Laptop Per Child project in an attempt to bring low-cost computers to developing nations. 

Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of MIT's Media Lab, unveiled the design last November and plans to start shipping the first units early next year. It aims to sell 150 million laptops.

The lime-green devices will be powered by a wind-up mechanism to allow them to be used in areas lacking a regular power supply. 

The United Nations has heralded the cheap laptops as an effective way to spread computers across the world.

A spokeswoman at Intel's headquarters could not confirm Barrett's remarks, but acknowledged that the company has said that it aims to address emerging markets by developing computers that meet local demands rather than just copying western designs at a lower price.

In August the chip maker opened four platform design centres in Brazil, China, Egypt and India to design computers for local markets.

Organisations that talk about bringing computers to the Third World often focus on bringing down the price through the use of low cost hardware and open source software.

But Intel has long maintained that, by looking at the price, they are taking the wrong approach.

"Price always matters, but the prime thing that people are looking for is for information technology to solve a problem that they actually have," Willy Agatstein, general manager of the platforms definition and development group at Intel, told vnunet.com in August.