OLPC Mission Takes Off to Peru

Shortly after the OLPC patent infringement scandal, the Peruvian government ordered 260,000 XO laptops to be introduced in the educational system. Things have moved fast for the Peruvian government, as they have posted their request just a month after the One Laptop Per Child charity went into mass production.

In November, the OLPC charity addressed the Taiwanese corporation Quanta Computer for a production partnership. Shortly after, the XO computer started rolling out in the Changshu manufacturing center, located in the underskirts of Shanghai.

Uruguay and Mongolia were the first to take advantage of the OLPC charity program, placing mass orders to Negroponte's organization. Nicholas Negroponte, head of the OLPC foundation made the Peruvian deal public on Saturday. Moreover, the OLPC program might go big scale in Mexico, too, as Negroponte's billionaire friend, Carlos Slim, cashed in for 50,000 units for the Mexican learning institutions.

Ivan Krstić, the director of security architecture for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, stated that the foundation has worked closely with the Uruguayan water and mobile phone utility companies in order to implement wireless access points on the companies' facilities in order to make wireless connectivity possible for the XO owners.

OLPC is currently taking donations for covering the notebook manufacturing costs. Negroponte has started the Give One, Get One program, that would allow their participants to purchase two laptops for $400. One laptop goes to the buyer, while the other is donated to a child in a developing country. Due to expiration, the program has been extended until the end of the year in order to facilitate funds gathering, as the organization is facing increased demands from third-world countries.

However, the project's evolution is unsure, since OLPC has to face powerful corporate competition from giants such as Microsoft and Intel (the Classmate PC). At the same time, the organization is in a legal battle for patent infringement with a Nigerian company (LANCOR) that claims they own the keyboard technology used for the XO laptop. If the court rules in favor of the latter, the OLPC program might be terminated.

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