One Laptop Per Child, Intel, Regular Joes

We've been following the One Laptop Per Child project ever since it spun out of the MIT Media Lab and into its very own organization. The project has secured foreign governments and significant investment commitments to purchase the laptops and the infrastructure to support them. Launch of the project has still sits in a testing phase, reportedly the final beta test stage. Much information is available about the laptops – including the standard operating system and whimsical colors and ear-like antennae on the case, but no one has let us use one of the foot pedal or hand crank generators yet. The big news this month is that the OLPC project has partnered with Intel, and the rumors have it that there may be a consumer model coming to market soon as well.

A $100 laptop, the initial price discussed for the project's devices, was enticing to many consumers. At about a fifth of the price of the cheapest models on the market the $100 laptop would make it easy for some consumers to go ahead and get a second machine, you know, just because we're Americans and like to spend money, especially when it's a deal. Mary Lou Jepsen, the CTO at OLPC, discussed the plan to sell the machines to consumers with Reuters. The price? $350 (twice the current production cost) or $525 – they haven't decided yet. We don't know if the new partnership with Intel is driving the move to sell the XO Laptop commercially or if it's just a move to meet demand. The laptops may make it to the marketplace in time for the 2007 holiday shopping season - putting a kink in the plans for the traditional retailers who likely haven't developed a strategy for competing with the new kid on the block. They're still a non-profit organization so whatever profit is reaped by selling the laptop in the marketplace will be rolled back into serving the mission of the organization, which seems like a good thing – more innovation or more units for the children. How can you say no to the children?

Image courtesy of One Laptop Per Child