The first taste is always free

OFFICIALS IN Vietnam are cooing after Intel man Sean Maloney gave 1050 Intel notebooks to the developing nation.

The laptops will go to schools to help educate the nation's youth. According to the Vietnamese wires, the majority of laptops will go to ethnic minority boarding school students, whilst the rest will go to junior and senior schools across the major cities, including Hanoi.

Education Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said that Vietname "recognises the value of technology in learning environment," and expected further collaboration between his government and the chip maker.

For his part, Maloney told on-lookers that "Challenges for people in the developing world include limited access to technology," subsequently failing to mention that challenges for Intel include getting more companies to buy into its technology to bulk up revenue further.

As they say up in town, the first taste is always free, and once Vietnamese kids get their hands on MySpace, you can bet that they won't settle for anything less than Intel everywhere. µ