The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organisation has signed a deal with Amazon to sell its low cost laptops.
The online retailer will help with its next Give 1 Get 1 (G1G1) programme that is due to begin in late November.
Under this scheme people can buy one of the XO laptops for themselves and donate the other to a school child in a developing nation.
It is hoped the deal with Amazon will iron out the problems OLPC encountered when it ran the G1G1 programme itself.
Novel model
Dreamed up by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte, the OLPC was set up to create and build a powerful laptop for school children in developing nations that sold in the millions and cost less than $100 (£56).
The resulting XO laptop sports distinctive green and white livery, has wi-fi built in, can be powered by a pull cord, and comes loaded with educational software.
Many nations have expressed an interest in using the XO but relatively few started big projects that gave the machine to students and school children.
In a bid to boost the take-up of the XO laptop, the OLPC started the G1G1 programme in November 2007 that let US residents buy two of the machines for $398.
While many people expressed interest in participating the OLPC group hit problems in getting XO machines to customers. Production delays and delivery glitches led to many people cancelling orders while OLPC sorted out the problems.
The new round of the G1G1 programme is due to start in late November and run until the end of 2008. It will only be open to US residents.
At the same time the OLPC group said it planned to launch the second generation of its laptop in 2010.
The XO-2 does away with a keyboard in favour of two touch screens one of which can be converted to a touch type screen.
OLPC hopes that the new version will also get closer to its long-stated ideal of producing a computer that costs less than $100.
The current versions of the XO laptop cost about $200 but the new generation is expected to be available for about $80.
3 comments:
While this seems like a great idea, computers are becoming so advanced and need to be able to process large amounts of information quickly. I'm not sure how useful or how functional a computer this cheap would be in America. Maybe someone that knows a little more about computers could help assist this argument.
I am also a little curious about these laptops. I read in this article that the XO laptops cost about $398. While that is cheap compared to the laptops most college students buy, they could probably get by with a desktop computer that costs the same, or less. And what all can these laptops do. Do they simply allow the users to run video-game type educational programs? Or can it be used for word-processing or higher-use functions as well? I wish this article would have provided more information on the funtion of the laptops.
Responding to Brian’s comment, I did see an article that mentioned that the OLPC XO computers will be equipped with a word processing app among other capabilities. As far as networking, it’s pretty innovative how their ‘mesh’ networking goes, any users within 1/3 of a mile of each other can network together, furthermore, if any one of those networked users have an internet connection, then all of the meshed groups do as well. This all sounds very positive, however, my thoughts are more leaned toward technical support for the computer illiterate. Once these children are at home with their XO’s away from school, will there be support for them then? Here in the states, technical support is only a phone call away and perhaps a drive as well. What happens if support for them is say, 10 or so miles away? They may not have the transportation means for this kind of help, and this is if technical support even exists anywhere. Whether it does or not, if help doesn’t happen fast enough, then perhaps the OLPC’s just sit there unused with further user frustration. It will be interesting to see how this checks out.
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