A few weeks from the launch of the first laptop designed by the One Laptop per Child foundation, aimed at underprivileged children in developing countries, the news arises that, once again, the low-cost computer will see its selling price at public increase.
In an advance report by Reuters, George Snell, spokesman for the foundation chaired by Nicholas Negroponte, points out that the new price of the laptop now stands at $ 188 – close to 135.50 euros -, 16 more dollars than the price stipulated in May and 88 dollars more than that established at the beginning of the project.
George Snell, explains that the strategic change is related to the increase in the production cost of the equipment, due to the prices of the components of the equipment and the currency fluctuation.
At the moment, the XO, as the low-cost computer is called, is being tested at various levels to ensure the correct «functioning of the entire software«integrated into the machine before it goes on the market.
As already foreseen, the computer will be sold to several governments that will distribute it free of charge to needy children. However, a new hypothesis arises, which, if carried out, provides for the sale of the XO to the public. In these cases the cost of the machine is expected to increase compared to the price charged to the governments involved in the project.
For the manufacture of the XO, OLPC had the support of several renowned companies in the computer industry. In this sense, the final result is supported by the Red Hat Linux operating system and AMD microprocessor. For its part, Microsoft is testing the compatibility of its software with the equipment, while Intel is also studying its collaboration on the project for the second generation of the device.
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2007-07-24 – Computers from the OLPC project start to be distributed from October
2007-04-27 – OLPC low-cost computers sold for $ 175
