 |
|
|
One Laptop Per Child Now 1 Per 2 Children? |
 |
At
Laptopical, we've followed the one notebook Per Child movement since it's taken wing. The
brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder of the MIT Media
Lab, the OLPC dream of a $100 portable computer for the children
of the developing world is finally coming to fruition, and those
children might finally be getting their hands on their one
laptop, the so-called Children's
Machine XO. Yet word is, the $100 XO might not really cost
$100. |
|
Such word
is coming out of the South American nation of Uruguay, where the
OLPC outfit there has ended the proposal submission from its
local distributors. The final price, based on these proposals, is
$205. What gives? A 100 percent increase is devastating in the developing world, where the cost of a XO could top the annual median income of a family. A spokesman for the OLPC has been quoted as saying that currency fluctuations are to blame, as well as the increased prices of nickel and silicon, two important ingredients in the laptop. The spokesman added that the OLPC is still shooting to keep the overall price under $190. That's still hardly the $100 per laptop as promised, right? Was that $100 ever possible, or was that just a marketing ploy used to get attention to Negroponte's project? Others even wonder if the laptops will ever be shipped at any price. Maybe the whole deal was just hot air blown up places where people don't need hot air blown. However, others argue for the side of calm-and reason. The explanation, they say, for the higher price in Uruguay is the fact that the local distributors asked for additional features to the laptop. And higher prices in general can be expected until mass production of the XO gets underway, expected in October. But the most convincing argument here is that, even at $200 per laptop, the XO is still revolutionary-if only because Negroponte has gotten the big boys (Microsoft, Linux, and Intel) thinking about creating affordable products with the developing world in mind. Source - OLPC News By Matthew Brodsky - Laptopical Monday, September 24, 2007 |
- Laptopical - Apple Laptops - Acer Laptops - Cheap Laptops - Dell Laptops - HP Compaq Laptops - Fujitsu Laptops - Laptop Reviews - IBM Laptops - Toshiba Laptops - Sony Vaio Laptops - About us - Site map |