The initiator of the project One Laptop Per Child has to concede that the famous $ 100 laptop for emerging countries eventually will cost 130 or 140, at least initially.
$ 100 laptop - 1The first working prototype of the $ 100 laptop designed to equip children in developing countries, was officially unveiled last week. Always output, the latter was presented Wednesday at a conference held in California and obviously, in the presence of Professor Nicholas Negroponte of Massachusetts Institute of Technology who heads the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child).
Negroponte has confirmed the fears of skeptics who felt that the $ 100 price for such equipment was not tenable.
Price increase, but certainly in the short term objective remains possible $ 100
According to Negroponte, the first laptops running Fedora distribution of Linux and equipped with a Wi-Fi module, should be delivered from April 2007 and sold in a price range between 130 and 140 dollars. In fact, the $ 100 laptop will be more aptly named, at least initially. Indeed, Negroponte expects that within two years, the price of $ 100 a reality but to do so the backlog should be sufficiently completed so that production reaches at least 5 million units by the end of 2008.
For Negroponte, the hardware side, the brake current at start of production is the thorny problem of the screen: "must be read in light of the sun and it will not be done until August or September."
Countries potentially affected
For now, seven countries are evaluating the $ 100 laptop. The most enthusiastic are Nigeria, Brazil, Thailand and Argentina. In a lesser degree, China, India, Egypt have also expressed their interest as well as Russia, Mexico and Indonesia. The more they are likely to occur over the laptop will be Negroponte's chances of fulfilling its original specifications.
With an increase of about 40%, the $ 100 laptop remains far less expensive than the laptop Eduwise of Intel offered $ 400.
An increase that still may be a matter of controversy for Bill Gates, who had already criticized the laptop from MIT that may well take the opportunity to put forward the plan Pay-As-You-Go PC Purchase prepaid card proposed by Microsoft.
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Inflation, price, laptop
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