One Laptop Per Child News

This just in via the Boston Globe: One Laptop Per Child is selling XO laptops like hotcakes!

Nicholas Negroponte has just announced a OLPC Peru sale:

[T]he government of Peru has signed a contract to purchase 260,000 of the $188 machines. "It was notarized five minutes ago," he said, adding that the Peruvian order will make it easier for the foundation to sign up more countries to the program. "It's momentum."

Adding to his momentium is an scaled down OLPC Mexico:

Negroponte also said Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has purchased 50,000 of the machines for distribution in his country. "He's an old friend, and he's been involved in this from the beginning."

Now while that isn't the 250,000 XO laptops Slim promised earlier, it's better than a Nigeria, where OLPC's partner is now pushing Classmates with Windows and OLPC is fighting a patent infringement lawsuit.

But back to the good news. I think OLPC has sold 600,000 XO laptops in the past two months:

• 260,000 to OLPC Peru
• 190,000 via Give 1 Get 1
  
• 100,000 to OLPC Uruguay
• 50,000 to OLPC Mexico

Congratulations, One Laptop Per Child! While its not the 10 million that Nicholas Negroponte promised in 2006, it's a damn good start.

Tags: Carlos Slim | Nicholas Negroponte | OLPC Mexico | OLPC Nigeria | OLPC Peru | OLPC Uruguay | XO Laptop Sales |

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We now have OLPC Mexico! Hoy en Telecomuncaciones reports (p1, p2):

Carlos Slim, the richest guy in the world and head of Telmex, is spending 870 million on a health institute, telecenters and this includes 70 million for 250,000 XOs. Focus will be on Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl in Mexico State, and Tuxtla Gutieérrez in Chiapas.

A OLPC purchase by Carlos Slim is not surprising, Nicholas Negroponte has been touting a Slim subsidized OLPC Mexico for a while now. But the price that Carlos Slim is paying for XO laptops is - its nowhere near the "$100 laptop" goal. TechNewsWorld reports that Slim:

would devote about $70 million (51 million euros) this year to the low-cost laptop program. With an estimated cost of $250 (183 euros) to $300 (220 euros) per machine,

While that may be like water off a ducks back for a man estimate to be worth $53 billion, to achieve his promised 1 million XO computers in 2008, he would have to donate $300 million to One Laptop Per Child at $280 dollars per computer per child.

And exactly how will yet another price increase impact the educational budget of OLPC countries like Argentina or Nigeria? And would this change OLPC's chances in Uruguay's Ceibal RFP?

On a bright side, could this Slim-OLPC alliance also mean we'll see adult OLPC Christmas sales at CompUSA?

Tags: $100 laptop | Carlos Slim | Chiapas | Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl | CompUSA | OLPC Mexico | Tuxtla Gutieérrez |

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In an unsurprising move, Intel has now committed to go toe-to-toe with One Laptop One Child's production schedule. Reuters is reporting that:

Intel Vice President John Davies said in an interview that his company has no immediate plan to crank up production. But he said that could change if Negroponte's effort shows strong demand for such devices.

"It's going to be driven by the market -- at the rate at which the market can afford and wants to absorb it," said Intel Vice President John Davies. "We can speed this program up -- probably faster than the market can absorb it."

But buried in the article are two interesting teases. First, could this comment be the start of an XO operating system from Apple?

Negroponte said in the interview the foundation is "open to" running Apple Inc.'s OS X Macintosh operating system on the XO laptop. An Apple spokesperson declined comment on its plans for the device.

OLPC has stated that it's emphatically open platform - open to any operating system, even Windows, replacing its Sugar/Linux combo if a participating country wants to make the switch. And I don't know about you, but if I had to choose, I'd take Apple's OSX over Microsoft's Windows XP/Vista any day.

What is the most intriguing is a possible OLPC XO subsidy by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. He has already promised to match donations for educational projects in Mexico:

Slim, who owns a telecoms and retail empire and has a fortune estimated at over $US30 billion ($39 billion), will meet all contributions dollar for dollar, his spokesman and aide Arturo Elias Ayub said.

"We want to offer Mexican or foreign foundations that we will match any amount they invest in social work in Mexico," Elias Ayub told Reuters. It was unclear how much Slim's donations might ultimately total.

And now Nicholas Negroponte says Slim has recently agreed to support the project in Latin America. Now no one has said how much support Slim might give, but I'll bet you a Children's Machine that he might just offer a $75 subsidy per laptop.

Why? I'll let you do the math.

Tags: $100 Laptop | Apple | Carlos Slim | Nicholas Negroponte | OLPC OSX | OLPC Subsidy | Sugar UI |

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