Cheap laptops for schools
September 25th 2008 08:52
From: Cheap Computers
The One Laptop per Child Foundation, started in 2005 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nicholas Negroponte, said Taiwan's Quanta Computer had started mass production of its first product, the lime-green-and-white XO laptop computer, at a factory in Changshu, China.
The group has already announced orders for children in Uruguay and Mongolia. It also plans to offer the laptops to Americans and Canadians through a $US 399 holiday charity program that covers the cost of providing a second machine to a child overseas.
The device, which runs on free Linux software, has already had a significant impact on the industry. Negroponte has traveled the globe meeting world leaders and talking to the public about speeding introduction of computers to children in the developing world. The XO is designed for elementary school students who are given the machines to take to and from school, like textbooks.
Analysts say the publicity he generated, along with concern his foundation's laptop might take businesses from commercial products, prompted companies including chipmaker Intel Corp and software maker Microsoft Corp, to boost investment in developing countries.
It has also spurred the launch of a new class of low-cost computers for a market broader than school children. Intel has developed the Classmate PC for the education market in developing countries, a laptop that it says cost $200 to build. So far its biggest customer is Pakistan's Allama Iqbal Open University, which ordered 700,000 of them.
| 35 |
| Vote |
Shared on
Add To: 
Subscribe to this blog
