Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

OLPC Manufacturer to Sell $200 Laptop On Open Market

Posted by Zonk on from the now-we're-getting-somewhere dept.

srinravi writes "ArsTechnica reports that Quanta, the company manufacturing the XO laptops, has plans to begin selling low-cost budget mobile computers for $200 later this year. 'According to Quanta president Michael Wang, the company plans to leverage the underlying technologies associated with OLPC's XO laptop to produce laptop computers that are significantly less expensive than conventional laptops.' While OLPC plans to sell the laptops in bulk to governments, which will then distribute the hardware to school children, the XO computer itself is not for sale on the open market. These XO-like commercial devices are still something of an unknown, but it has been announced they'll be using Open Source software."

4 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. Should sell well by Maximum+Prophet · · Score: 4, Informative

    People still use and support the Tandy Model 100 http://www.club100.org/. AFAIR, it cost more than $200 when it was new, adjusting for inflation.

    --
    All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
  2. Re:They are very insistent on NOT releasing it? by krasni_bor · · Score: 4, Informative

    1) OLPC seems to have all the funds they need right now.
    2) If the project works at all they will have huge economies of scale just selling to governments.
    3) It is not difficult to get a development machine, if you get involved and write a little code FIRST (using an emulator, etc.).
    4) Clearly, Quanta thinks they will be able to make them at scale and make even more than OLPC demands, based on this announcement.

  3. Re:Cost of distribution and sales by An+Onerous+Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why are you calling it "the $200 laptop?" The OLPC project has always had a target of $100/laptop. If you're using the phrase to refer to the OLPC's laptops, you're wrong. If you're using it simply to refer to $200 laptops in general, then you're being tautological. A $200 laptop is a $200 laptop because it's a laptop that is selling for $200.

    Read the article. Or the summary at the very least. The manufacturer tasked with building the laptops for the OLPC project has simply decided that it can use its experience to offer a very similar piece of hardware to the public at a low price. It's not the OLPC laptop, and it's not the much hoped for "buy one for $200 and a kid in Rwanda gets one free" deal that's been suggested. There's no reason to think that these laptops will be sold in bulk to governments.

    --

    You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!

  4. OLPC not for sale, not a company by capseed · · Score: 4, Informative
    Note that Quanta's mobile laptop, even if the underlying hardware and most of the software are the same, is NOT the OLPC machine. AFAIK OLPC has always wanted their project to exist outside of commercial markets. One of the main reasons for this was to help prevent a black market trade in these machines. If you have an XO, and you are not a child registered to use it, it will be very obvious that it is stolen.

    As far as the governments taking the laptops and doing something evil or keeping them from their intended users, does anybody know how far OLPC is going to step in with the education and support issues? Negroponte has said many many many times that OLPC is not a hardware project, it is an education project based on decades of research with children and computers. It would seem odd if they didn't send their own people out in the field to provide support and guidance to the teachers and students who get to experience the XO. I would love to be one of them!

    Summary:
    Quanta != OLPC
    OLPC != hardware project