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One Laptop Per Child Announce Partnership with Amazon
Fri, 05 Sep 2008
The One Laptop Per Child organisation has announced it has agreed a deal with Amazon to sell its low cost laptops . It is a significant breakthrough for the foundation ahead of their next Give 1 Get 1 scheme due to begin in late November. Amazon will help to make the scheme more widespread, allowing people to buy an XO laptop for themselves and donate the other one to a school pupil in a developing country.

It is the second time the OLPC foundation has run such a scheme, having previously started the Give 1 Get 1 programme in November last year. That scheme gave Americans the option to buy two machines for $398, one of which would be sent to a developing nation. The new scheme will again only be available to US residents, but the option to purchase the XO laptops online may result in an increase in sales. It is hoped that the OLPC’s partnership with Amazon will help to eradicate the production and delivery problems it suffered last time around, as orders were cancelled due to delays in production and errors with deliveries.

Meanwhile, the OLPC has announced it is to release its second generation laptop in 2010, with the XO-2 set to feature two touch screens rather than a keyboard. With the XO laptop costing $188, it is hoped the new model will be closer to the $100 target price.