[Robotgroup] OLPC manufacturer to sell $200 laptop in developed countries

[Derek Bridges]

This was posted by "Les" linuxles at yahoo.com on the Good Will Linux Group list


OLPC manufacturer to sell $200 laptop in developed countries:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070329-olpc-xo-manufacturer-to-sell-budget-portables-in-developed-countries.html

OLPC manufacturer to sell $200 laptop in developed countries
By Ryan Paul  | Published: March 29, 2007 - 08:31AM CT

Quanta, the company manufacturing the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)
project's XO laptops, plans to begin selling low-cost budget mobile
computers for $200 later this year. According to Quanta president
Michael Wang, the company plans to leverage the underlying
technologies associated with OLPC's XO laptop to produce laptop
computers that are significantly less expensive than conventional laptops.

The OLPC project, which hopes to bring inexpensive Linux-based laptops
to the education market in developing countries, selected Quanta (the
laptop manufacturing company that produces mobile computers for HP,
Dell, and Acer) to produce the individual XO laptop units. OLPC
project founder Nicholas Negroponte says that OLPC has no plans to
make XO laptops, which are "designed for the poorest and most remote
children in the world," available to ordinary consumers in developed
countries. OLPC plans to sell the laptops in bulk to governments,
which will then distribute the hardware to school children.
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Quanta's announcement will be welcomed by the throngs of technology
enthusiasts in the US and elsewhere who have expressed interest in
acquiring one of the OLPC's budget-friendly laptops for personal use.
Quanta plans to create a new "emerging PC" business unit to focus on
establishing a new global market for low-cost computers. Although few
details are available at this time regarding the software that Quanta
will ship with its own XO-like laptops, it is known that the company
intends to use open source software. Since virtually every element of
the OLPC platform (including the unique user interface) is available
under various open source licenses, Quanta could easily ship its own
computers with the exact same software used on the XO.

With luck, Quanta's increased involvement in the low-cost mobile
computing market will allow the company to further decrease
manufacturing costs and help the OLPC project reduce the XO's total
cost per unit. This move by Quanta could also help make modern
technology more accessible to underprivileged families around the world.