Amazon to offer OLPC's Give One, Get One Program later this year (update: possibly dual-boot)

Now that OLPC has met its One Laptop Per Child goal (in uh, Niue) it's time to go whole-hog retail. According to Matt Keller, OLPC chief in EMEA, OLPC will resurrect its Give One, Get One XO program in late November with the help of Amazon's big retail guns. Prices haven't been disclosed nor has the nimble Sugar or poky XP OS selection. But if history serves, we'll be looking at $399 for the Sugary pair just like last year.

Update: As it turns out, OLPC says that a dual-boot XP and Sugar OS XO will be shipping in the "next month of so." Happy pappie?

[d00b @ Sep 4th 2008 4:11AM]

It's gonna be a tough sell with just about a zillion netbooks on the market at the same or lower prices. The XO's time has come and gone. Either bring out the XO2 at the fabled $75 price, or pack it up and call Intel your daddy.

[Charbax @ Sep 4th 2008 7:32AM]

Where do you see Intel netbooks at below $200? Most Intel netbooks are $400 in the USA and 400€ in Europe. When there occasionally are cheaper netbooks, the netbook manufacturers mostly make sure to limit quantities available of the lower priced units so that they can force people to buy the more expensive options that provide them with larger profit margins.

You cannot compare a project that gives a free laptop to a child in a third world country when you buy a much better laptop for your child. The OLPC XO is much better for children then Intel netbooks. Intel netbooks might be usable for a bunch of old selfish rich adults in the developped world, unsuitable for kids. OLPC XO is better suited for kids in the developped world (fun, simple, mesh in class, sunlight readable for learning how to read, social conscience knowing the kid gave a same laptop to a child in a developping country...) even less for kids in the developing world (battery, screen, mesh, waterproof, sand-proof, safe, low power, dcon process...).

Intel still has a long way to go. But I don't think Intel really wants to go that way.

[d00b @ Sep 4th 2008 8:31AM]

The original EEE 701 was sold for around the $2xx mark at its intro, when bought in volume for gov/acad use. I can only imagine it's less now.

But we aren't talking about how much the XO costs, but what it's selling for. The GoGo deal was (will be?) for $400, for which you get one laptop. If you are into charity, then yes, some kid in some other place also gets a toy. Frankly, if I were in a giving mood, a laptop is pretty low on the list of things I want to donate. Hell, how about I send the tyke my pile of used textbooks and some #2 pencils instead? Heh. Anyway, read my below comment to you for more on this "save the world" shtick.

[Charbax @ Sep 4th 2008 9:58AM]

"The original EEE 701 was sold for around the $2xx mark at its intro, when bought in volume for gov/acad use. I can only imagine it's less now."

No it was not!

Stop believing what Asus and Intel tells you. The Eee 701 was mostly (over 95% of units shipped) sold at $399.

Asus does not want to sell anything below $300. In fact look at the sales facts, most netbooks are sold at a minimum of $399, not because people want more features in their netbooks, but because lower priced netbooks are simply not available.

[Innoc @ Sep 4th 2008 4:30AM]

I have spoken to NN and the XO give one get one will be out in Europe late November!

[ChristophD @ Sep 4th 2008 6:45AM]

All of Europe or only some selected countries? At what price point?

And the most important question: Who are you so that NN speaks to you? ;-)

[Gamoe @ Sep 4th 2008 4:54AM]

I loved the idea of the XO laptop, and it was indeed the XO which inspired the crop of mini laptops we have now. But, I too fear that the XO has limited appeal in developed countries at this point, at that price point, and I'm no longer interested in getting one myself, which I was the first time around.

[Oinquer @ Sep 4th 2008 5:08AM]

make it 100€-150€ and i might get one...

here in Portugal kids from first to fourth class will be getting Intel classmates at 50€ and lower so i don't see the point of this at that price

[avester @ Sep 4th 2008 6:14AM]

That's since your goverment pays a part.

And if you even bothered to read the article, you would realize that you pay double the price of your laptop, so you give 1 to the poor kids too.

[ChristophD @ Sep 4th 2008 7:06AM]

Well, the actual cost to the Portuguese government might be even higher:

"As part of its biggest deal for the Classmate PC to date, Intel said it will serve as technology adviser to Portugal's Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and Communications, which is coordinating the laptop program."

Something smelling fishy here? Cheap laptops in return for (more) influence on governmental IT spending anyone?

[Charbax @ Sep 4th 2008 7:17AM]

In Portugal, the Portuguese tax payers are paying probably around $400 per laptop. The 50€ Classmate price is totally fake.

The Portuguese is selling out some spectrum which should be the peoples propriety so that they can pay Intel for those Classmate laptops.

If Portuglal were using XO instead of Classmate, they would be getting at least twice as many laptops for the same price.

[chefgon_ign @ Sep 4th 2008 6:58AM]

Is there a way to give one without getting one? I don't want that ugly piece of junk cramping my style. Asus rendered this thing obsolete months ago.

[Charbax @ Sep 4th 2008 7:20AM]

Yup, if you just want to give some laptops you can do so at http://laptopgiving.org/

[Greg @ Sep 4th 2008 7:06AM]

So, how do these things last in the long haul.

Do you know of anyone who bought one last year? How have they held up? I'd imagine I'd get one for word processing, web, email and ebook reading (I heard it was particularly adept at that).

[Charbax @ Sep 4th 2008 7:26AM]

I sometimes use it as my 14" Windows XP laptop replacement for hours being productive and all without much problem. Though when my 5 year old cousin is using it, he is much more suited for that kind of laptop. It's a matter of screen size and keyboard size mostly. And it's not really suited for power users that want to have dozens of opened tabs in the browser at the same time. That is, until Google releases Chrome for Linux at which point it might become the best and default browser to use on this low mhz, low ram, low storage laptop.

To make things kind of obvious and blunt:

If you only want to think for yourself for a second (let's imagine you are an adult), you should support this cause it will bring prices down for all laptops, not only kid-sized laptops. By kids getting laptops, they get more intelligent, which makes them work better to make a better society for you to live in. By kids in third world countries getting laptops, there is no more war, there is no more starvation and misery, they can lift themselves out of their misery, organize the fair sharing of resources, get the truth out there, communicate with the world, this will create a more peaceful better place for you to live in.

[d00b @ Sep 4th 2008 8:21AM]

If the beta is any indication, the last thing you'd want to run on the XO is Google Chrome. It chews up memory more than Firefox, albeit less than IE8 beta.

>By kids in 3rd world countries getting laptops, there is no more war, no more starvation and misery.

I find your idealism a bit amusing, no offense intended. In the real world, a more computer literate population but without commensurate employment opportunities would make it a more dangerous place, as hackers turn to less savory means to exploit their skills. Such a problem already exists today.

Anyway, starry-eyed idealism makes for a poor marketing pitch to the geek set. The best you can hope for is indifference.

[cjstuff @ Sep 4th 2008 8:36AM]

I wrote a review of the XO back when it came out that you can still find here: http://www.llrx.com/features/xolaptop.htm

The bottom line is that the XO is not a laptop substitute in the traditional netbook sense. It's heavier and chunkier than my Asus eee 701, for starters, and the keyboard is completely unsuited for adult touch-typing. You'll also probably find the browser pretty limiting, and installing Opera is an imperfect solution because of the implementation. On the other hand, it's almost Toughbook-durable, and the color/b+w screen makes it a *very* good eBook reader.

The XO really excels at its primary design purpose-a kids' and teaching computer. My kids both use my XO and prefer it to any other computer in the house--it's built for little hands, and the Sugar OS is designed to engage and draw in kids. It's a great educational device, and even the onslaught of netbooks hasn't changed that. And, so far, my kids haven't managed to tear the membrane off the keyboard, which others have reported.

[Dean @ Sep 4th 2008 7:43AM]

next month of so? nice

[Dale @ Sep 4th 2008 10:21AM]

Why can't I just do Give One, Give Another?