$100 laptop for children may be nearing production
mongabay.com
August 1, 2006
The $100 laptop may be nearing production after One Laptop per Child (OLPC), the nonprofit group behind the device, confirmed that the governments of four countries are in talks to purchase the machines.
 The $100 laptop. Photo courtesy of One Laptop per Child. |
Argentina, Brazil, Nigeria and Thailand have shown interest in the laptops, which have been billed as a durable low-cost PC for children in developing countries. The minimum order is one million units and OLPC said it will begin production once it has orders for 5-10 million machines.
The laptop is the brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The project has received support from Google, AMD, Brightstar, News Corporation, and Red Hat and seeks to boost education efforts in the some of the world’s poorest regions.
The weather-proof laptops, available in some 30 colors, will have 366 Mhz processor, 1 gigabyte of storage capacity using flash memory instead of a hard disk, and USB ports for device connectivity. The laptop will be WiFi- and cell phone-enabled, and can be powered using a hand-crank.
The project has faced criticism — in March Bill Gates lambasted the laptop.