OLPC's $100 XO laptop goes into mass production

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project is at last gaining some momentum with the XO laptop going into mass production. It has been a long five years after the concept was proposed by OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte to bring low-price, $100 laptops to children in developing countries.

The laptops will, however, cost $178, and not $100. If everything goes according to plan, the laptops will start shipping in October 2007. The go-ahead for mass production is based on the Beta-4 engineering model. Mass production was kicked off after the OLPC foundation received orders for 3 million laptops, the number required to make the project viable.

The OLPC project has been supported by AMD, Brightstar, BT, Citigroup, Chi Mei Corporation, eBay, Google, Intel, Marvell, News Corporation, Nortel, Quanta Computer, Red Hat, SES Astra, and Underwriters Laboratories. Earlier in July 2007, Intel ended its opposition to the project and decided to support the initiative.

The OLPC initiative has faced severe criticism from some quarters of the industry. Many have questioned the cost of bringing laptops to children in developing contries. Other critics said the priorities in developing countries are sanitation, water and health care, not laptops. However, the UN and the US State department have praised the initiative.