I recently spoke about how smart kids from ‘developing nations’ were misusing the One Laptop Per Child opportunity.
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), which basically is an American nonprofit organization, has be working on developing low-cost, connected laptops for children in the developing countries. OLPC plans to sell one million laptops in India in a year, and this was announced in The Economic Times.
Now, this is good news for us Indians. So far OLPC has set up its office in New Delhi. According to the company, it already has sponsorship commitments from key corporate houses for the project. The laptop is priced at $300 including deployment and maintenance. Although an XO-1 laptop costs only $100, additional features such as video camera and USB ports would increase the cost up to $200. With maintenance and deployment costs, the cost shoots up to $300.
According to OLPC, the laptops will be available only as charitable donations to primary schools in the country. However, an individual wishing to buy the laptop for personal or corporate use will be charged $400 for two laptops, one of which will be donated to a school of his choice. OLPC also offers to print the brand of the company on the laptop in case of a large order.
In the next 12 months, OLPC plans to amalgamate with 30 key corporate houses and spokespersons and work towards increasing the literacy of information technology in India. However, the project may face competition from Intel’s Classmate PC, which has already been deployed in some schools. Intel’s Linux- based Classmate PC costs nearly $300 and is aimed at secondary school children. OLPC focuses on primary schools for its XO-1 laptops.
The laptop has a waterproof and dust-resistant keyboard and wireless mesh network capability. According to its makers, it can receive nearby frequencies up to 350 metres. The XO-1 laptop offers many features unavailable in conventional laptops. However, OLPCs needs to find corporate business partners to achieve their target.
Source: ItExaminer