RM has announced its version of the 8.9in Eee PC for schools.

RM expects to sell 50,000 Eee PCs in 2008 and reckons schools which kit their pupils out with the little laptop see SAT scores go up by an average of 3.5 per cent.

Tim Pearson, CEO of RM, said Microsoft had been aggressive on pricing of the Windows version and that the price gap between using Linux and XP (including Works 9) on the Eee PC is £25 in the UK.

"Learning how to type is more important than learning how to write," said Pearson, who was describing the mantra in a Singaporean school. In my opinion, however, increased PC usage may benefit language, humanity and electronic education, but laptops are not yet suitable for most mathematical education - a qwerty keyboard is too rigid to derive something, do basic differential equations or even long division exercises.

Microsoft's director of education, Steve Beswick, took the stage afterwards and extolled the benefits of Windows XP on small laptops. "Security is one of the reasons for using XP in school," said Beswick. Citing security as a virtue of Windows may sound laughable, but schools like to set universal security policies and parental controls.

The 8.9" RM Asus miniBook, as it will be called, costs a fiver more than the non-RM branded Eee PC costs (at £285 ex. Vat). It will be available for a few months before being superseded by the superior Atom based Eee PC 901.