$100 Laptops Go into Production; Give 1, Get 1 Offer
10 November 2007Quanta has started building the “$100″ laptop - the one that has a hand crank for generating electricity - in a Chinese factory under the auspices of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization, the group behind the project and which was founded by Nicholas Negroponte. OLPC said children in developing countries will this month begin receiving the machines, called XOs. Uruguay placed the first order, which was for 100,000 units. The current price is $188 per unit, but OLPC hopes to get it down to $100 as manufacturing volumes increase. The fundraising that’s being done is called “Give 1 Get 1,” and asks for a $400 donation with one unit being shipped to the donor and another one sent to a third-world country. Intel chairman Craig Barrett once called the unit a $100 gadget and Microsoft’s Bill Gates criticized it for its small screen and lack of a hard drive. Hmm. Wonder if OLPC might want to pre-install Google’s Android operating system for mobile devices.
T-Mobile is offering donors one year of complimentary access to T-Mobile HotSpot locations throughout the United States, which can be used from any Wi-Fi-capable device, including the XO laptop.
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