update to ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD

[joeorc]

they have done something that is pretty cool. READ ON:

Laptop Charity Seeks Help From Home Market
Foundation to Sell
Two PCs for $399;
One Gets Donated
By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO
September 24, 2007

The high-profile "One Laptop Per Child" effort to bridge the digital divide between the developed and developing worlds is setting its sights closer to home.

After months of debate, the program is set to announce today that it will sell its affordable "XO" laptops, custom-built for the developing world, in North America. But there is a twist: Buyers here must purchase two computers -- one for themselves and one for a child in the developing world, for a combined cost of $399, some of which is tax-deductible.
[photo]
Tough, cheap, sold in pairs: The XO

The nonprofit program also is talking to more than a dozen governors and numerous school districts about bulk orders, according to Walter Bender, president for software and content for the One Laptop per Child Foundation, of Cambridge, Mass. Offering the computers in the U.S., he says, will help finance overseas deployments and raise awareness about the project among U.S. students and teachers.

Launched in 2005 by Nicholas Negroponte, the founding chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, the One Laptop per Child Program seeks to distribute affordable laptops to millions of schoolchildren in the developing world. The original aim was to eventually sell them in bulk to governments and foundations for $100 each to give to schoolchildren, but the price goal has proved tough as costs have risen.

Approximately 7,000 prototype laptops, whose distinctive design includes a solar-panel charger and a thick handle, are already in schools in countries including Cambodia, Rwanda and Brazil.

The first official batch of 40,000 computers is slated for production in October, with the group hoping to have two or three times that number made by year end. The laptops will begin shipping to countries in South America and Africa by early November. Ramping up production swiftly will be necessary for the program to drive down its price toward the $100 goal.
A number of other efforts continue to gain steam. NComputing Inc. aims to widen computer access by selling low-cost access terminals that allow a number of users to leverage the power of one PC. Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which is supporting the One Laptop effort, is also promoting various others through its "50x15" initiative, which aims to connect 50% of the world's population to the Internet by 2015.

The One Laptop per Child Foundation weighed its U.S. strategy carefully. Some in the organization worried that selling in the U.S. market might distract the group from its developing-world focus. But others felt it would build momentum for the XO laptop, so named because the letters, stacked on their side, look like a child. In the end, the group decided to sell it here, but scrapped plans to modify the U.S. devices with additional software to appeal to U.S. consumers.

It isn't clear how strong demand for the product will be in the U.S., where leading laptop manufacturers continue to lower prices on more fully featured devices. The requirement to purchase two might be a barrier to some buyers.

Mr. Bender says that despite being designed to survive for years in third-world climates, the devices sport many features -- like an eBook reader and easy Internet access -- that will resonate with kids world-wide. "There is a level of simplicity in what we have done that people are looking for," he says.

Laptops from the first batch will be available to North American consumers for two weeks, starting Nov. 12 by phone or at the Web site XOgiving.org.

Write to Jessica E. Vascellaro at jessica.vascellaro@wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1190...googlenews_wsj



GOAL than would be 2 laptops for $200.00
lets hope they make it...