OLPC Cost Rises To $188 Per Laptop

Arathon writes "The amazing '$100 laptop' designed by the 'One Laptop Per Child' program isn't going to make it out the door for that price. CNN reports that the laptops are now expected to cost $188 apiece when they come out later this fall. This is expected to make the program's appeal potentially much smaller, since the developers were relying on the mind-bogglingly low-price to hook governments into the concept of buying laptops for their people. OLPC's spokesman guarantees that the price won't rise further, to 'above $190'. The price differential is being blamed on raw materials costs and currency fluctuation. Is this the end of the OLPC's newsworthiness, or should we continue to hope that it will make the difference that so many have said it will?"

Comments

Still apples and oranges

[Rob Simpson]

Try dropping an ASUS Eee and the OLPC (unless those responsible for the latter are lying, which is certainly a possibility) and see what happens.

Also, I guess I just assumed it was bigger because all I could remember was the resolution...

OLPC:
7.5" diagonal LCD (6.0" x 4.5")
Dual mode operation: Reflective Monochrome or Transflective Colour
TFT LCD driving
1200x900, 200dpi resolution
less than 1W in colour mode, 0.2W in B&W mode
LED backlight

Eee:
7 in TFT LCD @ 800×480 (though apparently a - more expensive - larger screen model may be up to 1280×768...no details I've heard of yet, though).