14 DAY TRIAL // I'm getting pretty tired of seeing the XOs everywhere, except where they should be. And it seems that I'm not the only one thinking that, especially because the members of OLPC are not making much progress here. Motive for which alternative ideas have been taken into account. One that seems plausible enough to work is that the XOs should be sold through large retailers just as any other laptop. While that derives from the original goal, it offers the founders of the OLPC project the opportunity to recuperate some of the invested money.
Note that, at the moment, the $100 laptop costs about $150 per machine. The first countries to sign up to buying it include Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan and Thailand. The leaders of the project are taking into account many possible scenarios, including the "buy 2, get 1 for free" idea.
Michalis Bletsas, chief connectivity officer for the OLPC project, said eBay could be a partner in the future sales of this laptop "We're discussing it with our partner eBay. We need to minimize supply chain cost, which is pretty high in the western world." If that proves to be true, the OLPCs could go back to their initial price of $100, but it might take a while before that happens.
Mr Bletsas, when speaking at CES, also noted: "We are trying to help the governments - that ranges from donating resources, to making sure that we work with them [XOs] and that they don't consider the laptop as something that can work in a disconnected environment. It's vitally important that children are connected. My ambition is that we will get them connect to a vast amount of information that is unavailable to them. It will stimulate their interest in looking further - not waiting for some teacher or an adult."