One Laptop Per Child News

Resumen en español al final del artículo

Three weeks ago I mentioned that OLPC Association has been remarkably quiet about the Android-based Walmart XO Tablet which it had introduced at CES 2013 in early January. Since then things have progressed a little bit with the Web site receiving a bit of a facelift.

Then yesterday Engadget posted an article and video (embedded below) about the XO Tablet. The 8-minute video provides a good introduction to the device and software so I recommend watching it.

In terms of availability it is said that mass production of the XO Tablet recently started and that it will be sold on walmart.com starting on June 1. A month later it should also become available in a limited number of physical stores. Again no information on pricing was revealed.

Now given OLPC Association's track record and the previously discussed March launch date going by without as much as a sound I remain skeptical (hence the supposedly in the title) until I actually see it on walmart.com myself.

Beyond that I'm generally still not sure what to make of the XO Tablet. Strategically it very clearly is a move to capitalize on the OLPC brand. It's also obvious that despite its planned use in Uruguay the XO Tablet is a run-of-the-mill Android device that has little to do with the broader vision and work that OLPC has done in the past 8 years. Yes, there's the dreamy software interface, some content partnerships, and cute green protective cover. But it's still a commercial and US-centric product that will compete with a hundred other tablets for virtual and physical shelf-space rather than even trying to make a meaningful impact on children's education.

Or I am missing a big piece of the picture? What reasons do you see for why anyone would buy an XO Tablet rather than a low-cost tablet by the likes of established consumer brands such as Acer, Archos, Amazon, Asus, Google or Samsung?

Resumen en español: En este video de Engadget se presente el XO Tablet y esta mencionado que llegara a walmart.com el primero de Junio. Pero aparte de esto la verdad es que yo todavía no estoy seguro de qué hacer con la XO Tablet. ¿Quizas me estoy perdiendo una gran parte de la imagen? ¿Qué razones le ve a por qué alguien iba a comprar una XO Tablet en lugar de una tablet de bajo costo de una de las marcas de consumo establecidos como Acer, Archos, Amazon, Asus, Google y Samsung?

Resumen en español al final del artículo

Ever since it introduced the Android-based Walmart XO Tablet at CES 2013 in early January OLPC Association has been remarkably quiet about it. The official Web site at xo-learning.org still looks like it was put together in a rush on a Friday evening, the blog on the site hasn't seen any updates since late January, and the anticipated launch-month of March went by without a single word from OLPC Association. Only the @xolearning Twitter account has regularly tweeted but it's been fairly generic chatter. This lack of updates, combined with OLPC's history of launching products which much fanfare only to quietly cancel them later (XO-2, XO 3.0) has led to some people wondering whether this was yet another vaporware announcement.

However according to an article on a Uruguayan Web site from last week Plan Ceibal recently decided to purchase 10,000 XO Tablets. According to the piece these tablets are part of an evaluation to decide whether Uruguay's 5- and 6-year-olds (which means pre-school and grade 1 pupils respectively) will receive a tablet, an XO or a hybrid (which sounds like the XO-4 Touch) in the future. Given that 47,000 pupils start primary school each year coming out on top of the evaluation could be quite a win for the XO Tablet, though naturally that would potentially cut into sales of the XO-4 (Touch).
What strikes me as somewhat odd about the evaluation is that the article indicates that it will be completed by the end of the year, even though the XO Tablets are only expected to be distributed in four months. Even excluding possible delays this leaves precious little time for any sort of evaluation and comparison with the 10,000 hybrid devices which are apparently also being evaluated.

Another interesting detail which the article reveals is that according to the current plans the pre-school pupils will have to keep their devices in kindergarten or pre-school whereas grade 1 pupils will be allowed to take them home.

Overall this is certainly good news. It's good for OLPC because, well, selling 10,000 XO Tablets indicates that it's not vaporware and Plan Ceibal has some confidence in the product. It's also good for Uruguay's pupils because it shows that Plan Ceibal continues to innovate and look for the most suitable technologies to integrate in the country's education system.

Resumen en español: Despues de no escuchar nada de OLPC Association sobre el XO Tablet que anunció en enero en los ultimos meses gente ya empezaron a preguntar si el producto verdaderamente existe. Pero la semana pasada se publicó un articuló en una pagina Web uruguaya que contó que Plan Ceibal había comprado 10,000 XO Tablets para evaluar el usó con niños de 5 y 6 años.

Resumen en español al final del artículo

Soon coming to an XO-4 near you (photo by Robert Nelson)

In what can only be described as an unexpected development OLPC Association announced that it has managed to hit the originally envisioned $100 price the XO laptop is still so widely known for. This was achieved by borrowing a page from Amazon's playbook and introducing ad-supported versions of the brand-new XO-4.

Depending on the specific hardware configuration (non-touch display vs. touch display, 1GHz CPU vs 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB RAM vs. 2GB RAM, 4GB Flash vs. 8GB Flash) the ad-supported models will cost between $100 and $138. At this point it is unclear how much cheaper that is than the non-ad-supported XO-4 models as their prices haven't been announced yet.

One very interesting aspect of the ad system which Poisson D'Avril (OLPC Association's Director of Educational Marketing) mentioned is that it can be managed by deployments:

„All of the content in the ad system is curated and selected for appropriateness by OLPC Association and leading independent reviewers of age appropriate digital advertising in North and South America. Beyond that we will also provide best-practice guides and tools to our implementation partners in the public and private sectors. This will enable them to customize the ads seen by their pupils and teachers and therefore maximize their impact."

One thing that D'Avril didn't want to comment on is if deployments will also receive a cut of the advertising revenue or whether their main benefit will be the reduced purchase price.

Asked about the risk of ads distracting pupils and teachers when using the machines she responded:

„Naturally we did not want to risk negatively impacting the learning experience enabled by using the XOs. So all throughout the ad system's development we ran comprehensive tests in pilot rollouts in several of our ongoing projects in North and South America. As a result and after discussions with some of our leading partners it was decided that ads will only be shown when the XO is starting up, shutting down, and on the newly added screensaver when it is in power-saving mode."

Beyond that D'Avril also mentioned that for some countries special agreements with local advertisers had been signed:

„In some South American countries advertisers have been given the option to replace the famous XO startup sound with their client's jingles. In other cases advertisers will include product samples such as soft drinks, sweets, comics, but also school books and pencils with every XO-4 that is shipped."

At this point it's unclear whether a similar approach will also be used with the XO Tablet which should have become available at select Walmart stores in March. Similarly there's no word on whether the software components of that ad system will make an appearance in an update for the older XO-1 / XO-1.5 / XO-1.75 models.

Now overall of course the question is whether this development should be considered a good or bad move by OLPC Association. On the one hand it will likely enable more children in developing nations to get XOs thanks to the lower price. On the other hand I can't help but feel that exposing children to more advertising isn't something I can truly support. Especially since I still vividly remember how annoyed I was when we found that after a renovation my secondary school's gym had been turned into one big advertising space for a certain soft drink manufacturer...

So what do you think?

Resumen en español: En lo que sólo puede ser descrito como un desarrollo inesperado OLPC Association anunció que ha logrado llegar al precio previsto originalmente de $100 para el XO. Esto se consiguió prestando una página del libro de Amazon y la introducción de versiones del nuevo XO-4 que vienen con publicidad.

Dependiendo de la configuración de hardware específica (pantalla no-táctil vs pantalla táctil, procesador de 1GHz vs 1,2GHz, 1GB de RAM vs 2GB RAM, 4GB Flash vs 8GB Flash) los modelos con publicidad tendrán un costo de entre $100 y $138. En este punto no está claro cuánto más barato es en comparación a los modelos XO-4 sin publicidad como sus precios no han sido anunciados todavía.

Nicholas Negroponte of OLPC

The X PRIZE Foundation announced today that it has set a goal of funding and launching a $10 Million Global Literacy X PRIZE in 2013. The purpose of this X PRIZE is to transform established beliefs about the timeline, nature, quality, and scalability of literacy solutions to serve the needs of over 60 million children who are not receiving primary education.