It sounds like you're about to re-invent the failures of "One Laptop Per Child".
The one thing people in poor countries do not want is special weird incompatible systems designed for the poor. They want a solution which is adequately close to the western ones, just cheaper. Look at cellphones: http://qz.com/451844/africas-smartphone-market-is-on-the-ris...
I also think that smartphone will get there faster. Maybe Chromebooks if Google will play it nice, because of Android apps support and normal keyboard.
However I think OLPC is different from what I have in mind. OLPC targeted children with OS designed for children. I am thinking about something more like RaspberryPi with integrated power and display systems, but with external keyboard. Also I think about it to be extremely cheap. $100 laptop is already done by Chromebooks, but it is not cheap enough. It would have to be around $25 or less. It should expose GPIOs like RaspberryPi so it could be used in more settings. It would be black and white and mostly text only. Basically my pipe dream. Maybe I would just like to go back in time sometimes and I am just projecting?
It is just a loose idea, but outside of people's preferences economics of scale are certainly supporting smartphones.
Sure, that's what you'd want; is it what the target market wants? Would people be happy limited to B&W text?
For something like what you've described, the cost is driven by casework, screens, touchscreen components and batteries. Not the processing electronics. It sounds like something halfway between a Kindle with a keyboard and one of the cheap Windows tablets, now below $100. (http://www.dx.com/p/onda-8-v820w-quad-core-dual-os-tablet-pc...)
Perhaps a cheap phone combined with a cheap, keyboard accessory and bundled software would be better? Definitely include Wikipedia app on homescreen and Python w/ learning guide somewhere on there.
The one thing people in poor countries do not want is special weird incompatible systems designed for the poor. They want a solution which is adequately close to the western ones, just cheaper. Look at cellphones: http://qz.com/451844/africas-smartphone-market-is-on-the-ris...