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Looking to refocus consumer attention and counter the ongoing market spread of low-priced ultra-mobile personal computers (UMPCs), the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organisation has penned a deal with online retail titan Amazon.
OLPC brings its XO laptop to Amazon. Image: Drewfer/Flickr.
In a move that will undoubtedly help increase the exposure of its budget XO laptop, the OLPC foundation will begin offering its innovative little computer through Amazon during its next ‘Give 1 Get 1’ initiative (G1G1), which sees people purchasing an XO unit for themselves, while a second unit is donated to a needy child in a developing country.
That latest G1G1 drive will be launched through Amazon at the tail end of November (running until November 2008) and will likely grant a significantly enhanced level of online saturation for the educational laptop.
The sturdy, green and white XO was initially developed to provide governments in developing nations with a cheap way to give children access to the advantages of modern-day technology.
The brainchild of MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte, the XO budget laptop is the result of a collaborative industry effort and comes complete with onboard Wi-Fi, a fully sealed and weatherproof keyboard, and even an ingenious pull chord power-charging system.
Other features integral to the Quanta-made XO include the AMD Geode processor, a Linux operating system, 256MB of DRAM, 1GB of flash memory, a built-in Web camera, and a 7.5-inch TFT LCD screen.
Currently, the G1G1 initiative is restricted to consumers in the United States and sees buyers charged $398 USD for two units of the XO, one they get to keep and one they donate.
Previous G1G1 drives have not been especially successful, with the OLPC foundation suffering through cancelled orders due to hiccups and delays in the XO’s production process and delivery.
The OLPC foundation has also used its Amazon announcement to reveal plans for a new, second-generation version of the XO, which it hopes to have ready for 2010.
According to the OLPC, the cannily titled XO-2 will abandon the old QWERTY keyboard format in favour of dual touch-screen technology, the bottom screen of which will display a touch keyboard.
The foundation also hopes to offer its XO-2 to interested governments for around $80 USD, which successfully undercuts the overall project’s original pricing target of $100 USD.
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