OLPC expected to dip to $50 by 2009, get WiMAX someday

While the OLPC Foundation has long said that it expects its OLPC XO laptop to get cheaper as production ramps up, it looks like they're now getting a bit more specific about it, with OLPC CTO Mary Lou Jepsen reportedly saying she expects the price to dip to just $50 by 2009. Apparently, one of the keys to reaching that rock bottom price is doing something about the cost of the display used in the laptop, although no one seems to be saying exactly how that'll be achieved. Jepsen does seem to have had a bit more to say about the "next-generation OLPC," however, most notably that it'll come with built-in WiMAX connectivity. No ETA on that, of course.

[Via TG Daily]

[Bosco @ Jul 5th 2007 4:26PM]

One way they could reduce the cost of the display is to make it a chalkboard. So the kid using it would have one friend cranking it for her and one friend drawing on the screen for her.

[Chris @ Jul 5th 2007 4:54PM]

Great! Now poor kids can download porn and steal music!!

[Mike @ Jul 5th 2007 5:32PM]

Because the tool controls the user?

[Chris @ Jul 5th 2007 6:30PM]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/joke

Wow... you are a barrel of fun.

I was making a joke about the fact that there is a ton of porn and readily available pirated music on the internet.

Get... a... life.

[Joseph @ Jul 5th 2007 6:02PM]

Ok, so NickNeg us racking his brain trying to figure out how to get a computer that is technically on par with a circa 1998 laptop for $50 in the year 2009. Um, why not try Craigslist or eBay, there are plenty of 11-year-old laptops available for under $50.

[greg @ Jul 5th 2007 6:07PM]

Ars Technica already debunked this story by actually talking to the OLPC people:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070705-2009-year-of-the-dirt-cheap-50-olpc-xo.html

[Hardcore @ Jul 5th 2007 6:12PM]

@Joseph

So you had a Laptop that only used 2 watts of electricty and had WiMax and Mesh networking back in 1998?

[logyk @ Jul 5th 2007 6:26PM]

that's great!! Now all they need to do is change it to a colour that wont induce vomit and they may have something here.
PS. It also looks like it may sprout legs and attempt destroy humanity, either that or i've smoked way too much pot

[djpurpose @ Jul 5th 2007 7:15PM]

Great! All I need is some people in third world countries with no money to their name clicking on my google adwords. Watch the ROI for advertisements go way down.

[Johan S @ Jul 5th 2007 10:07PM]

I don't think this would affect your ROI long term. People will simply refuse to pay the same cost per ad showing. Therefore, the cost of the ad showings should reduce if the purchase rate goes down .. if it doesn't - people won't use their service. You should be able to invest the same amount of money, your ad will be displayed more often, and ultimately you will get the same amount of return.

I think there'll be demand for more intelligent demographic based targetted ad showing, that way google can earn even more money. These laptops aren't going to be used by totally broke people after all.

[Burgemolisher @ Sep 23rd 2007 12:09PM]

The OLPC is a bit of a joke, as was the Foleo, to start. I have to be honest, I would buy one to put in my kitchen, where I wouldn't buy an internet-enabled device. I would spend $100 to have in different parts of my home -- I have a wireless router.