The concept of a sub-$100 laptop has been around for a long time. Numerous companies have claimed they had such a project in the works, and several others came close but fell short at the last moment. The project that seemed to be the closest, OLPC, still ended up charging nearly twice what they originally had planned.
Now another company has come out of the woodwork to claim they will have a sub-$100 machine available for retail in the near future. Coby Electronics claims that their PoqetMate-7 and PoqetMate-9 units, due for launch in March of next year, will be right around that $100 mark, with the PoqetMate-7 actually going as low as $99.95.
Further, they claim that after the initial launch, even smaller netbooks are planned. What exactly could we expect from $100 of hardware? We're talking about a relatively unknown company with a product that has very little information available, so don't hold your breath. If any company manages to get an actual "netbook" out the door at the $100 mark, though, it could lead to other vendors following suit.