Analyst group Gartner has poured scorn on claims by the One Laptop Per Child group, that it will be able to produce a laptop costing £50 ($100) within the next three years. But Gartner does acknowledge that prices for portable computers are set to tumble.

Prices will be driven down by the combination of demand and declining component costs, said Gartner analyst Annette Jump. But those costs are not falling fast enough to make a $100 laptop a viable proposition within three years, she noted.

Gartner's latest market figures show sales of laptops in Western Europe grew by 45 per cent year-on-year for the second quarter of 2008.

The cheapest laptop in the market, according to a cost breakdown from Gartner, is the OLPC Device. “The OLPC-XO device is slightly cheaper than the other products because of lower processor and motherboard cost, and battery and packaging cost,” noted Jump’s report. Closely following the OLPC-XO in cost is Intel’s Classmate PC and the Asus Eee PC.

Nevertheless, OLPC remains adamant that its target of developing a $100 laptop is on track. “OLPC is going to bring the cost down to a lot less than $100 much sooner than three years,” a company spokesman told IT Week.