14 DAY TRIAL // The One Laptop Per Child’s (OLPC) XO mobile PC will begin to be sold on Amazon starting November 17th. According to Amazon, the XO laptop will be available in the same manner as its previous Give One, Get One (G1G1) program, which will allow customers to spend $400 for two laptops, one of which goes to a child from a developing country.
Amazon also added that only the Linux-based XO laptops would be offered, and that it would sell no Windows-based machine. The XO will be exclusively sold by the U.S. Amazon storefront at the moment, says OLPC. The offered laptop features 1GB of internal flash storage, 256MB of RAM, a 7.5-inch LCD screen and wireless networking. The laptop is said to be rugged and able to withstand harsh weather conditions.
The outfit of the laptop will be modified according to the location where it will be sent. The XO will include a lithium-ferro phosphate specially designed battery, stated to prove more power-efficient than standard notebook batteries. Moreover, the laptop is able to run on solar power or can be set to use a small amount of power generated by a foot pedal or a pull string if electricity is not present or not reliable.
The XO laptop is going through an update period meant to make it faster and able to store more data and is code-named the XO-1 Gen 1.5. The upgraded model is expected to feature a faster processor, increased flash storage, a new wireless chip and rubber bumpers for better screen protection. According to OLPC, the new laptop is expected to start shipping in the first quarter of the next year.
OLPC is a nonprofit organization which aims at bringing advances to the global developing world education market with its XO laptop. The OLPC laptop faces some competition from the Classmate PC developed and offered by Intel Corporation. The potential sales for OLPC went down, while the manufacturing costs also proved to be higher than expected. Affected by this, the original $100 price for the laptop had to be raised to $200.