Intel Corp.’s next-generation Classmate PC aimed at developing markets will feature rotating touch-screen panels and will be manufactured by Quanta Computer, the world’s largest contract maker of notebooks.

Quanta will start shipping next-generation Intel Classmate PCs to customers in Q1 2009, according to a news-story by DigiTimes. Everything points to the fact that the new Classmate PCs will gain rather huge popularity: shipments were around 100 thousand units in 2007 and are estimated to grow five times to 500 thousand units in 2008. It is projected that the next-gen Classmate PC shipments will be about two million.

Intel has reportedly confirmed that Quanta would be manufacturing the new Classmate PC, but indicated that the previous-generation PC for emerging markets will continue shipping too with the original OEM partner, Elitegroup Computer System (ECS).

A second generation Classmate was unveiled in early April 2008 at Intel’s Developer Forum. The new model is almost certainly based on Intel Atom processor, may be equipped with up 512MB of DDR2 memory and 30GB parallel ATA hard disk drive. The systems will feature 9” or 7” touch-screen displays with integrated web-cams.  

Tags: Intel, Quanta, Classmate PC, Atom