OLPC orders surge as Peru requests 260,000 XOs

All steam ahead for the OLPC Foundation, which recently received an order from Peru for 260,000 of the little XO laptops. Also news is that Mexican billionaire and Negroponte's chum Carlos Slim has purchased 50,000 for his country. That's against a background of $2 million sales a day on the Give One, Get One program. Clearly, the OLPC Foundation is the most successful program out there for getting laptops into the hands of schoolchildren.

[Image credit]

[kojo87 @ Dec 2nd 2007 8:00PM]

maybe they saw the 60 Minutes story too

[rocko @ Dec 2nd 2007 8:07PM]

Did anyone else just watch that report on 60 minutes??

[Mike @ Dec 2nd 2007 8:16PM]

That was an old report, but they changed the ending with new info.

Good to see the XO is doing well despite competition from Intel. Somehow, I think Negroponte cares more about putting laptops in the hands of children than Intel does.

[kojo87 @ Dec 2nd 2007 8:29PM]

i think Intel is more concerned about making some cash and trying to pass it off as a charitable act. i don't even understand why there is competition in this sort of thing. its seems to contradict the whole mission.

[David @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:00PM]

Not really. In case you don't remember, competition pretty much benefits everyone except the company...

[coolbho3000 @ Dec 2nd 2007 8:28PM]

You know what I don't understand? All these countries (some of them third world) are buying laptops for their schoolchildren by the thousands, yet here in the United States our government can't even afford them.

[derka @ Dec 2nd 2007 8:32PM]

yyeeeahh those countries aren't $9 trillion in debt....

[Tim Batt @ Dec 2nd 2007 8:36PM]

Na, they can totally afford them but the States have different priorities, like for example putting all their budget in bombing the crap out of third world nations. War's what makes the world turn round in GWB's head.

[jtc970 @ Dec 2nd 2007 8:41PM]

Could be that the majority of people in America are already fortunate enough to have a computer at home and/or at school.
God Bless the USA.

[Matt O @ Dec 2nd 2007 8:43PM]

Your an idiot, nearly all the countries that are buying these computers for their children are years behind the technology that most Americans have today. If they dont have a computer at home nearly everyone in this country can gain access to one in some way or another. This includes public libraries, public schools (both of which are normally free to use), as well as computer centers where you have to pay a minimal fee to access the internet. Buying these PCs in mass for our children in this country would just be a waste of money and effort especially since they would be largely incompatible with the dominant windows operating system as well as Apple OSX. That being said i think it is amazing that Negroponte is bringing children around the world into the internet age that Americans often seem to take for granted.

And if you are the type to argue maybe the following image will help you to understand ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:GM_-_Countries_by_Internet_Users.png

[ThePengwin @ Dec 2nd 2007 9:19PM]

@ Matt O

"Your an idiot"

Oh man, thats classic!

[coolbho3000 @ Dec 2nd 2007 9:30PM]

If US schools want to blow all their taxpayer sourced funds on multimillion dollar football fields, instead of buying their students actually useful pieces of hardware, that's fine with me.

[The Grand Master @ Dec 2nd 2007 9:41PM]

@ coolbho3000

I never did understand why sport seemed more important that education/educational tools in American schools...

Before you guys beat me down with that one I'm a foreign student studying in the US. I've heard teachers say,'its sad a student has to come into school and use energy when they're ill, when they could stay at home and be ready for their sports event after-school.'

[Hung @ Dec 2nd 2007 10:06PM]

@ coolbho3000 & The Grand Master

I totally agree... No.

You must not be familiar with American Public School. Sports programs are not permitted to use government funding. Any and all sports fields are financed by (1) money collected by Booster Clubs, (2) the members of the team, (3) ticket sales, (4) local and major businesses, and MAYBE—if they are ever so sweet in asking—city contributions not from federal taxes.

And if you don't think that 1, 2, and 3 could possibly make enough to fund the program, think about this: professional football teams make upwards of $100 million per annum after player compensation. Now divide that by 5 (assuming Pros charge $50 and High Schools charge $10), then divide by 14 (assuming a sold-out stadium of 70,000 and a modestly attended game of 5,000), multiply by 10/16 (number of games). Just from ticket sales, the football program alone would make over $890k every year. That's not even counting endorsements and booster club donations. And even if they made a quarter of that $890k, they could pay off the field and maintenance costs in less than 5 years.

P.S. Most schools are open for more than 5 years.

P.P.S My High School school sucked at football, but 3 years after opening they could afford a $100k Big Screen from endorsements alone.

[outlaw @ Dec 2nd 2007 11:00PM]

@Matt O:

The problem with your usage of the Wikipedia image to prove your point is that it is based on population. Look at China and Korea for example. Using your argument, we would assume that Korea is "years behind" China's technology. And it would also appear that the Netherland's technology would be "years behind" India's.

I'm not saying that I don't agree with most of your points, but using that image to prove your point is fundamentally flawed and downright silly, not to mention that it doesn't help your argument one iota.

[Matt O @ Dec 3rd 2007 12:39AM]

Well i did a little digging around and i just found this page...

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats2.htm

Do with it as you will, im going to bed.

[Harry @ Dec 7th 2007 1:26AM]

I think the OLPC group isn't big enough to roll it out world wide all at once. They'll roll the project out in third world countries first - those folks will benefit a lot from it....

Also - how do you think the powers that be will react to the OLPC moving in on their turf here in the united states? They'll welcome the OLPC with open arms, won't they! You believe that, and I'll sell you a bridge in Brooklyn...

[Ben Stafford @ Dec 2nd 2007 10:18PM]

Matt O.

I think the OLPC would be a better choice for students in the US. You can wordprocess (literacy), I assume a spreadsheet app (basic numeracy) ebook reader and Internet (EVERYTHING). You don't need a typical $300-$1000 'puter for what students need.

I say the more basic computer the better.

[MardiGras Bandit @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:35PM]

Last I checked, the OLPC costs the same as the typical $300 computer. The promised $100 price tag was less accurate then ASUS' claim of a $200 EEEPC.

I still want one, but not if I have to buy one for some poor kid to get it. I guess I'll stick with my $15, 20 hour Compaq C140 or cruise EBAY looking for a Dreamwriter IT. They don't really have the internet or a crankshaft, but they can do spreadsheets and send faxes. Hell, they can even play DOOM.

[David @ Dec 2nd 2007 9:51PM]

That is sorta true.. my old highschool paid 15mil for a field/track/stands/bathrooms/ticket booth... seemed pretty expensive to me. Although like EVERYTHING else they got the money from petitioning and having a bill passed that gave the district the money. The same "could" be done for a program like this but I assume most parents see it as their responsibility to provide a computer not the schools.

I think this program is great and Intel should stop trying to kill it just because AMD stepped up to help out! Boo Intel :)

[Dahk @ Dec 2nd 2007 10:02PM]

Doesn't seem like Carlos Slim is that slim - money-wise AND physically.

[dataminer49er @ Dec 2nd 2007 10:42PM]

Oh boy...

I think my long lost multi-million dollar uncle will be emailing me from Peru soon for a cash transfer request.

[Marcos @ Dec 3rd 2007 12:10AM]

Matt O:

The image you link to is misleading and useless by itself. Countries have very different populations so the sheer amount of internet users says nothing.

One example:

China has 1,321,851,888.
Israel has 6,426,679.
So according to this, Israel must need the OLPC so much more.

But really, Israel has 1899000 / 6426679 = 29.54% internet users, and China has 137000000 / 1321851888 = 10.36% internet users. 3 times better penetration!

Perhaps you need to point us to a more informative chart.

[David @ Dec 3rd 2007 1:06AM]

http://www.internetworldstats.com/images/penetration.png

[Paul @ Dec 3rd 2007 12:11AM]

where are the laptops for our poor children? Funny MIT wants to help everyone but the nation they are based in. They design and concept something, but fail to realize there are people here who can't afford computers still. No the 199 wally special does not count. It is a little hard to take to school

Take care of your own, then worry about the world.

[yourleftnut @ Dec 3rd 2007 12:49AM]

I want to get an OLPC for my daughter. She's 3 and loves to mess around with my MBP, which is why I want to get her an OLPC. Is the internet browser fully capable? She plays alot of Sesame Street games online and I want to be sure the OLPC can do that kind of stuff. TIA

[Charbax @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:50AM]

There is a project by the Mayor and city council of Birmingham Alabama to bring 15,000 OLPC laptops in the USA to schools in Alabama in January: http://www.wrcbtv.com/news/index.cfm?sid=1162

[AGG @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:42AM]

It's pretty sad there are people out there with powerful vested interests who want to see this project fail.

[alex @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:49AM]

still pushing the QWERTY keyboard on these poor kids. As if they needed any disadvantages.

[Henri @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:29AM]

so some numnuts here in my country offer to sell 1 of those laptops (or ship it here) for about 625$ - moneyhungry basterds.

[Magallanes @ Dec 3rd 2007 12:07PM]

Again?.. years ago Peru attempted to put Linux in the educational system and failed. Now they will try to put a proprietary OS with a unsupported "notebook" on school?.

[DJDoc @ Dec 3rd 2007 1:49PM]

olpc = one laptop per third world power insurgent...

[Luis Other @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:52PM]

Im from Peru... First i find some of the comments insulting, like the one from DJDoc, second i have to say we have Public internet centers here for very cheap but one thing is that and the other is giving the student the power of having its own computer at school, to discovery the wonders of internet and to level up a little the ground so he in the future can become a world citizen and aport something to the world.

BTW America could have the more percentage of computer and internet penetration but how its used for?, isn't America (USA) one of the countries with more literacy but the more illiterate one?

I hope OLPC wins for the children of the world.