On Wednesday at the UN Summit in Tunisia, a prototype for $100 laptop, developed primarily by MIT, was unveiled. BBC has the scoop.

This has all the makings of a textbook disruptive innovation:

1. It is a price-based innovation. The laptop is still a computer, but at $100, it is significantly cheaper than other laptops on the market.
2. Its primary obstacle from a marketing standpoint is non-consumption. The laptop will first be distributed in developing nations, particularly areas where laptop computing is not prevalent at all.
3. The laptop does not utilize existing value chains used in the computer-manufacturing process. For instance, it does not use a Windows or Apple operating system; instead, the OS is Linux, and all the software is open source. As a result, it does not have to play by the rules of the markets that create Windows and Apple computers.

The ways in which disruptive innovations will be used are not always easily forecasted. This laptop has, wisely, left its usage possibilities open. From IPDemocracy:

They can be folded in different ways to serve as an electronic book, a television or a computer.

Most importantly, this is why disruptive innovation is so great: kids who never could have dreamt of having a laptop will now be able to get one, and as such the potential for them to expand their minds is enormous.

It doesn't get much better than that.

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