14 DAY TRIAL // Amazon will be selling the OLPC XO laptop in 30 countries starting on Monday, according to the latest news reports. This would be the first time when the laptop is made available to the general public from areas other than U.S. and Canada. As previously reported, the laptop will also be relaunched on Amazon for the U.S. and Canada markets, while the website plans to sell it in the program called "Give one, get one." In addition, customers will also be able to purchase a single machine to donate it.
Around 150,000 XO laptops were produced last year in the "Give one, get one" program. OLPC, or One Laptop Per Child Association Inc., is a nonprofit organization that works on offering the low-cost XO to children in developing countries. The price of the XOs will be $399 (£254 or €312) for Europe and other few countries. Those willing to buy a single machine to donate it will pay $199. According to the organization, there will be no VAT (value-added tax) charged, and transactions will be processed and billed by Amazon.
The XO laptop will be available for Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the U.K.
According to OLPC's wiki page, the program does not have a scheduled end date. Last year, the program has been running from November until the end of December. The XO laptops have been designed to withstand harsh environmental conditions and are packed with a battery that lasts up to 21 hours. Moreover, the organization says that the machine can be powered by solar panels, foot pedals, and pull-strings as well.
The laptops will feature the latest edition of the Sugar interface on a Linux operating system based on the Fedora Core. OLPC says that the laptop does not allow dual boot Windows and Linux. Users will be able to choose between a U.K.-style power adapter and one designed for continental Europe. Although the organization struggles to reduce the price of the laptop to $100, production costs put it at $200.