OLPC To Sell 7-Inch XO Tablet In Wal-Mart

angry tapir writes "One Laptop Per Child is back in the tablet race, announcing a new 7-inch tablet with the Android OS that will be sold commercially and include its learning software. The XO Tablet was announced at the International CES show in Las Vegas. OLPC will license the design to Sakar International, which will sell the tablet in the U.S. through Wal-Mart."

Comments

One antimalarial course per child

[2.7182]

That's what I'd prefer to see for the third world.

Re:One antimalarial course per child

[Lumpio-]

One antimalarial course per child isn't going to help them get what it takes to stop being third world. That is, information. Teach a man to fish etc

Re:One antimalarial course per child

[Omestes]

Teach a man to fish etc

Start a fire for a man, he'll be warm for the night.
Start a man on fire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

Re:One antimalarial course per child

[Charliemopps]

I've been to Ethiopia. They go to school with Malaria. Like most diseases we see the horror stories. Most people with the disease are walking around with it and while they may have some debilitating symptoms, they aren't life threatening. It's when the person gets a second illness and becomes weak that Malaria gets deadly. I'm not sure of the total political situation there but I believe they are socialist. Their clinics are all free. The children walk in and they get treated for free. The medicine they use however is not totally effective. We took a girl there and they said that the treatment they had (and I have no idea what it was) kept the disease at bay, but it would eventually come back. According to the dr, so may people have the disease that it did little good to cure someone of it, because they'd just catch it again within a year. So instead, they buy this cheaper medication. The girl was getting adopted by an American family and according to the Dr the family could get a cure when they got back to America which they did.

So does this mean that

[Lumpio-]

Walmart is a third-world country now?

Re:So does this mean that

[MrEricSir]

Walmart is a third-world country now?

Walmart is enormous, its workers are paid poorly, and occasionally there's safety issues with their products.

So yes, Walmart has always been a third-world country.

Re:So does this mean that

[Taco Cowboy]

Walmart has many stores in China, and Walmart is going to set up shop in India very soon.

Last time I check, both China and India are regarded as "3rd world".

BTW, that "Sakar International" doesn't sound legit. Even their site is really lousily built.

Re:So does this mean that

[Artifakt]

The First, Second, Third World metaphor goes back to the Cold War. As it was originally applied, The US and Western Europe were First world, and the major Communist countries Second. Third world was originally for low powered nations, but ones the west and the reds were going to struggle over, not ones aready strongly in one camp or the other.
Here's a link - it's just a wiki so I urge people to check the primary sources, but I'm old enough to remember how the term shifted meaning pretty much as described. I heard it in military briefings often enough the wiki discription of the shift accords with my own impressions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World

China may have been regarded for a time as 3rd world as the shift took place, but as it stands, it doesn't fit the modern spin, as it's too economically pwerful, and it didn't fit when the term started either, as it was originally one of the twin hubs of the Second world when the terms were coined.

Only at Walmart?

[CrkHead]

I'd look forward to buying one sold anywhere else.

This should be interesting...

[Frosty Piss]

Well... First please understand this is not a "flame" ...

But if this tablet's UI is as non-intuitive and non-useful and the original OLPC, I sure hope it's open enough to load something else on.

The best thing about the OLPC that I bought is the Wi-Fi range. But that's it, otherwise useless even to my children.

Too little, too late

[timholman]

Is Negroponte serious? Who is going to care about a 7" Android tablet at this late date? The market is already saturated with them - just look on Amazon at all the different brands, at every imaginable price point.

The time has passed for the OLPC concept. They've been in catch-up mode ever since the netbook wave hit, and they've fallen even further into irrelevance since the tablet craze took over. This will be yet another overpriced publicity-seeking OLPC flop that never makes it to production.

Re:Too little, too late

[Anonymous Coward]

If the tablet also has the dual-mode Pixel Qi display, that would be a notable differentiator.

You misunderstand "the OLPC concept" if you think its time has passed.

Two years too late

[BuypolarBear]

A few years ago when there weren't many choices in the market there was a lot of demand for them to release one of their devices as an inexpensive, low power computing device. That time has passed. Now days the market is flooded with cheap alternatives. They've waited too long, they're way too late. Unfortunately they don't stand a chance.

Re:Two years too late

[Lisias]

Perhaps not.

When a government makes a choice about what device it will be adopted for mass distribution, the market logic doesn't necessary applies.

For how many years the device will be in production? For how many years will be possible to fix broken ones? For how many years new software will be available to them?

On the consumer market, this cycle is just too small. No honest and competent govern will invest a ton of money on a device that will be deprecated and abandoned by the manufacturer in the next year.

There's also a political bonus: since the devices are semi-obsolete (as you stated), the manufacturers doesn't have to worry about competition. There'll be no lobby against it. Better, will be lobbies pro it - it's a nice opportunity to make yet some more bucks more using already paid off installations and machinery.

It was always a novelty for the 1st world!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

People here are missing the point. This device isn't about the 1st world. When you complain it has no value to your child, consider yourself lucky, because your child has access to a real computer. To your child it has no value. To a kid in the third world where nobody a round him has a computer and he doesn't even get to school more than once a week this device is a godsend.

This device is not competing with mass market tablets. It is designed to be rugged, work well in hard spots (good wifi, mesh networking etc), be powered by hands/solar/etc. Things the first world user doesn't need or get with the device.

This was never more than a novelty for the 1st world. Whatever money they were going to raise has been raised. However any of that was a bonus to begin with.

2nd. This is being brought to the 1st world by an entity other than the OLPC project. If you notice they used the words licensed. If there is somebody to criticize for being late to the party it's the licensee.

For the OLPC project this licensee is just another entity contributing something. It is soaking up whatever cash is left of the novelty. The OPLC project though is not and has never been targeted at the 1st world. Comparing it to cheap tablets devices which are largely crap just isn't a fair comparison. Fortunately it doesn't really matter what anybody here thinks. We aren't the target for this device. What matters is they gain the support and services of the third world, 1st world (but for the third world), and other non-governmental organizations.

Re:It was always a novelty for the 1st world!!!!

[drinkypoo]

People here are missing the point. This device isn't about the 1st world.

Uh no, you have missed the point, along with OLPC. This device is utterly unsuited for the developing world. Flexible power? Gone. Cover for the screen? Gone. WiFi repeater functionality? Gone. Ruggedizing? Most important single feature, gone. The truth is that you can buy similar devices from Aliexpress for half the money. Why pay twice as much to get it in a goofy color?

Significant departure from OLPC's original vision

[Anonymous Coward]

Cannot help but notice that this is a significant departure from OLPC's original vision. Just consider:

* Uses proprietary software.components
* No sugar-UI (the open source educational UI in use in 3 million XO laptops)
* Seems OLPC just picked a random android tablet off the market and added a green cover to it. Does not look rugged, and easily repairable at all (like all OLPC laptops till date).
* No sunlight reflective screen
* No mention of Negroponte
* Closed door development

If I were squinting hard enough, this wouldn't look like anything OLPC has been involved in ever since it started out.

LeapPad 2

[KalvinB]

A LeapPad 2 can be had for $100 and the software is $25 a pop or a little less if it's on sale.

It doesn't sound like the OLPC thing will get to the $100 mark and what's the quality and quantity of the educational software?

And since it's all Android, what is the incentive to buy their tablet over any other Android based tablet?

At the end of the day, the device is the least of the cost and value. It's the software. Who cares if the tablet is $50 if there's no good software for it? Or if I can get the same software on my smart phone?

Check with the CDC before you travel

[billstewart]

and take malaria-prevention meds. You may need to start them a couple of weeks before your trip, depending on which meds they're using these days.

Also, anywhere that has malaria issues usually has other diseases that you'll need to get immunized for, so expect some fun shots.

What it runs on....is not the problem.

[Shadowmist]

What it runs on I don't care. So far all of the OLPC laptops have been utter failures in the mission they were designed for. Being cheap robust instruments for the children of the third world. The kind of operating system being used is irrelevant if it's major faults are not otherwise addressed, to whit the tendency for the units to fall completely apart under even benign conditions here in the First World, much less the the Third.