OLPC Not Running Low on Parts

The One Laptop Per Child foundation is preparing for the fast coming massive computer shipments that will begin in October and as the entire laptop and notebook manufacturing industry is plagued by critical component shortages, some reports and analysts are less than optimistic about OLPC's ability to respect its deadlines.

But according to the news site news.yahoo.com, OLPC is on top of things and the foundations said that current hardware shortages are having little to no effect on the manufacturing process of the XO machines. The entire mobile computer market is having some problems because of strong sales and some massive battery recalls, as hardware manufacturers cannot keep the pace with the demand. Hardware manufacturing companies are complaining about the critical shortage of LCD screens, certain kind of integrated circuits and some other hardware components. As OLPC designated October as the month when it will begin mass shipments, things are looking a little bit problematic right now, both because of low hardware stocks and because of the increasing demand for higher end laptops on the market.

C. C. Leung, vice chairman and president of Quanta Computer, one of the most important laptop and notebook hardware manufacturers, said that the coming period is always very demanding on the hardware industry because of the back to school sales and the fast approaching Christmas season, which are both drastically increasing the demand for mobile computing devices. But he also said the the One Laptop Per Child foundation should have no problems with hardware supplies because of a number of already made commitments by hardware manufacturers and suppliers. The only problem that the OLPC program might face is the LCD shortage that is now running rampart as all notebook manufacturers are running low on supplies, while only smaller companies are facing hard disk drive and battery shortages. The real problem for the XO machine is that Sony had to recall around 10 million lithium-ion based batteries not so long ago so all its production lines are working at full capacity in order to resupply the market and as the XO uses both lithium iron phosphate batteries and nickel-metal hydride batteries, the manufacturer company, Quanta may switch to the available kind in order to maintain production.

Some market analysts like those from the research firm Goldman Sachs estimate that more than 78 million laptop and notebook computers will be sold this year and Quanta will build more than a third of them together with the first batch of XO machines. The OLPC program is not cooperating only with Quanta, as a number of important players on the computer hardware and software market are supporting the educational venture like Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, Red Hat, Google and Nortel Networks.