Peru is the first country in the world to receive Windows based laptops through the OLPC program

Lima, Peru - September 15, 2008. - Today, José Antonio Chang Escobedo, Peru's Education Minister, announced the agreement between Microsoft and the One Laptop per Child Association (OLPC). This agreement aims to provide programs such as Windows XP and Office, as well as other educational resources, which will be made available on laptop computers for students. This makes Peru the first country in the world to have XO devices based on Microsoft Windows.

The agreement is part of a nine-month pilot project to integrate educational software, low-cost computing, and technology training into classrooms throughout Peru. This marks a significant milestone as the first Microsoft Windows-based XO deployment in the world, representing the first of ongoing pilots in key markets previously announced by Microsoft and OLPC in May of this year.

"We are extremely excited to take part in this historic educational pilot that will benefit school children throughout Peru," said José Antonio Chang Escobedo, Minister of Education in Peru. "Integrating technology into our school curriculum will help to advance our knowledge economy, improve access to information and will generate opportunities for our students, which, through governmental policies, aims to improve the learning process we are offering our children, as well as closing the digital divide which currently exists between schools in rural and urban areas."

"The world-class software offered through the Microsoft Student Innovation Suite coupled with the training offered through this project provides a powerful and well-supported set of tools to help young people realize their full potential. Along with the Ministry of Education of Peru and OLPC, we are delivering a complete, relevant and affordable educational computing solution to schoolchildren in Peru who will now have the opportunity to experience the benefits that technology can provide. As such, we underline the importance of transforming education as a fundamental goal of Microsoft Unlimited Potential, our ambitious effort to bring sustained social and economic opportunity to people who currently don't enjoy the benefits of technology", outlined Lieneke Schol, Public Sector Lead, Microsoft Multi Country Americas.

"This pilot in Peru represents an important milestone in the evolution of One Laptop per Child," said Charles Kane, President of One Laptop per Child. "It demonstrates our ability to collaborate with Microsoft to provide governments a choice of operating system on the XO laptop."

XO Laptops used in this pilot will come pre-installed with Windows in order to facilitate the OLPC's job of delivering them to the Ministry of Education of Peru, which will then provide them to school age children, to be used for educational purposes. They will be made available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, throughout the useful life of the device and while the child follows through with the school calendar year.

The main advantage of the XOs with Microsoft Windows is that students can learn using a widely recognized universal tool which represents a window to the globalized world.

Offered through Microsoft Unlimited Potential, the Student Innovation Suite is a collection of Microsoft's best education software offerings designed to help implement sustainable technology programs in partnership with governments and non-governmental organizations that benefit students and transform the educational opportunities in their communities. The education suite includes Windows XP Pro, Microsoft Office 2003 Standard, and Learning Essentials 1.0 for Microsoft Office.

Interestingly, in this clip from Laptop Mag, Negroponte says that part of the reason they're unveiling the design so early is that they're hoping people will copy it—a radically different stance from the first time around, when riffs on the concept of a cheap subnotebook by competitors basically slew the original XO. Good to see a more enlightened view. In other OLPC news, Give 1, Get 1 will start back up in August or September. Man, I want one of these, and I'm not even in a Third World country. Or Alabama.

Cambridge, Mass., May 20, 2008 - One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a non-profit organization focused on providing educational tools to help children in developing countries "learn learning," announced today that work is already underway on a second-generation version of its revolutionary XO laptop computer. Leveraging new advances in technology, the primary goal of the "XO-2" will be to advance new concepts of learning as well as to further drive down the cost of the laptop so that it is affordable for volume purchase by developing nations.

"Based on feedback from governments, educators and most important, from the children themselves, we are aggressively working to lower the cost, power and size of the XO laptop so that it is more affordable and useable by the world's poorest children," said Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child. "The delivery of the first generation XO laptop has sparked tremendous global interest in the project and provided valuable input on how to make the XO laptop an even better learning tool moving forward."

"One Laptop per Child and the XO laptop are crucial to the fulfillment of the proposed UN Ninth Millennium Goal: to ensure that every child between the ages of 6 and 12 has immediate access to a personal laptop computer by 2015, said, Nirj Deva, Member of the European Parliament. "It's only through access to education that young people will be able to develop the skills necessary to compete globally and to develop the solutions required to break the cycles of poverty, disease and malnutrition. Learning unites the child with the world, binds the village into a community, and joins that community to the global village."

The first generation XO laptop went into production in early November 2007, and there are approximately 600,000 units in deployment in a number of countries including Peru, Uruguay, Mongolia, Haiti, Rwanda, Mexico, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the US and Canada (as a result of the Give One Get One charitable giving campaign that ran last November 12 - December 31, 2007). Key goals for the XO-2 include:

Cost Reduction - Set in early 2005, the original target price of the XO laptop was $100. Although that target has not yet been met (it is now at $188), it is clear that OLPC must aim for an even lower target price of $75. New developments in display, processor and other hardware and software technologies will make it possible to achieve the $75 target in the future.

Lower Power Consumption - While the first generation XO laptop already requires just one-tenth (2-4 watts versus 20-40 watts) of the electrical power necessary to run a standard laptop, the XO-2 will reduce power consumption even further to 1 watt. This is particularly important for children in remote and rural environments where electricity is scarce or non-existent. Lowering the power consumption will reduce the amount of time required for children to generate power themselves via a hand crank or other manual mechanisms.

Smaller Footprint - The XO-2 laptop will be about half the size of the first generation device and will approximate the size of a book. The new design will make the XO laptop lighter and easier for children to carry with them to and from school or wherever they go. The XO-2 will continue to be in a green and white case and sport the XO logo in a multitude of colors that allow children to personalize the laptop as their own possession.

Enhanced Book Experience - Dual-touch sensitive displays will be used to enhance the e-book experience, with a dual-mode display similar to the current XO laptop. The design provides a right and left page in vertical format, a hinged laptop in horizontal format, and a flat two-screen wide continuous surface that can be used in tablet mode. Younger children will be able to use simple keyboards to get going, and older children will be able to switch between keyboards customized for applications as well as for multiple languages. The dual-touch display is being designed by Pixel Qi, which was founded in early 2008 by Mary Lou Jepsen, former chief technology officer of One Laptop per Children and a leading expert on display technology.

In order to be eligible for the price cut, tech firms need to be making low-cost PCs that limit their screen sizes to 10.2 inches and hard drives to 80GB and under. The computers must also not have more than 1GB RAM or a 1.0 GHz single-core processor, and come without touch-screen technology. These limitations help ensure that the ultra cheap laptops won't eat into the market for mainstream PCs running Windows Vista.

Microsoft will charge $26 for XP in emerging markets such as China and India, and $32 for developed markets like the United States. What do you guys think—will the price cut destroy the inroads Linux has been making into the consumer market? [ ComputerworldUK]

Replacement is not the right word. We have no CEO. I have never held that title nor used it. I will continue to do what I do, no real change.

And in other news, the Windows version of the XO laptop should be released in less than 60 days, depending on how talks with Microsoft and OLPC go. [Laptop Mag]

So, even if they miraculously have one to send to you, it's late 'cause they don't know where to send it. It's telling that while they tout that 80,000 people donated to Give One, Get One, OLPC won't say how many people have actually gotten them yet. I think it's time to hand the org's reins over to some cigar-smoking monkeys in fedora hats. That way, even if everything was all screwy, it'd just be hilarious instead of you know, sad. [PC World]

Okay, we remember how far OLPC spiraled way past its $100 laptop goal. So how can XO's designer—who should know as well as anyone the difficulties involved in cranking out uber-cheap machines—except to slash 25 percent off a price OLPC couldn't touch?

Because Pixel Qi stands to make beaucoup bucks from licensing tech to commercial companies, subsidizing its low-cost laptop, a far more effective business model than hoping wishy-washy governments maintain their closed-door promises to buy your wares while getting courted by your frenemy at the same time. (More on this at Valleywag.)

While Pixel Qi might provide components to OLPC "at cost," if it really puts a laptop on the marketplace that costs almost a third of XO's current price, XO is probably donezo. [Yahoo!]

OLPC prez Walter Bender said that Intel's efforts to build an XO Laptop with one of its chips were "seemingly half-hearted" and that its brass was more interested in OLPC for PR reasons:

"The only thing they were interested in was ... helping them make marketing statements about how Intel's approach to learning was different from OLPC's approach to learning," Bender said. "They weren't interested in how we can learn together and make something better for kids."

On the other hand, the market being flooded with ton of cheap laptops (which might be better than XO) for developing countries ultimately goes toward OLPC's goal to bring computers to everyone, so it's a bit off to say it is the One True Way, even if Intel really is a child-hating, PR-feeding douche. That said, we hope OLPC gets its act together soon. The only thing worse than a train wreck is one carrying the hopes and dreams of millions of children. Or something like that. [CW]

It all seems pretty straightforward, but as they stumble through basic tasks like getting the Wi-Fi going, you wonder if it's them or the notebook. Either way, it leaves Fake Steve "at a loss for words." I've got three for these two: Don't have children. [via Fake Steve]

It's appropriately rugged, with a kiddy-but-pukey periwinkle rubber case sleeve, and the keyboard/touchpad are solid. Despite not being a powerhouse machine, apps like Office load with reasonable speed and the battery life's nearly biblical (3h40m). But the Windows and Office install gobbles up space, leaving just 1/2 a gig for storage, and it weirdly runs kinda hot. Still, perhaps more importantly, it's cheaper than the other hype-grabbing ultra-cheapie, Asus's Eee and not too far off of OLPC's mark at $300.

Throw in the Microsoft goods—which, love or hate, is what some places are looking for to be on a level playing field—and you've got an OLPC-killer, especially if they could chip the price down a bit further. [Gadget Lab]

It won't be offered to anyone in the US or Canada, even quasi-philanthropists participating in the Get One, Give One program. But, we're guessing the anti-copying measures won't be particularly hardcore, meaning it'll probably make its way to the internets not long after launch. Bootable Windows on an SD card would be pretty nice on our side of the world too, actually. [CNET, CNET]

Yes, Lagos Analysis Corporation has "filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Federal High Court, Lagos Judicial Division holding at Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria against Nicholas Negroponte, One Laptop Per Child Association (OLPC) and its enablers in Nigeria." What'd Negroponte do? Well, according to LAC, he reverse engineered and stole their multilingual Shift2 keyboard tech, which features four (count 'em) shift keys to allow for more fancy character typin'. Specifically, we're talking about these KỌnyin keyboards that are available globally.

In fact, Solicitor Ade Adedeji says that "The willful infringement of our client's intellectual property is so blatant and self-evident in the OLPC's XO Laptops. We will have no problem establishing the facts of our client's case against OLPC in any court of law." Yikes, Negroponte. Yikes.

I don't understand the finer subtleties of Nigerian court codes, but one presumes this is more lousy news for the OLPC camp. We'll keep you updated as to the results of this, the trial of the century. [MarketWire]

[Joy of Tech via All Things D]

Even though it's bulkier and heavier than Eee, XO's durability and clever, colorful design with antenna locks, a swivel screen with a power-conserving black & white mode, and resistance to 120-degree temps and four-foot drops unshockingly bring home the design category. But, XO wins in just two more: Connectivity, thanks to its mesh networking capabilities for daisy-chaining Wi-Fi and collaboration, and price (obviously). It loses in UI, learning curve, apps and specs.

In their conclusion, Laptop kicks XO in the nuts, and hard:

...Its designers may have outthought themselves; in their quest to create a laptop that adults could teach children to use the world over, they forgot that it's children who usually teach the grownups how to use new gadgets. Barring its unique form factor and mesh networking features, we wonder if the XO couldn't have been better served by an operating system and programs more akin to the Eee PC 701.

To date, only 2,000 students have gotten their XO Laptop, and Uruguay's the only solid national deal with 100,000 ordered. Nicholas Negroponte says Peru's on the hook for 250,000, but we know how that's gone. And less than 300,000 will be pumped out of Taiwan by the end of this year. At most, 1 million a month will roll off of conveyor belts next year. The WSJ's penchant for understatement is comically beautiful here: "Mr. Negroponte's goal of 150 million users by the end of 2008 looks unattainable."

So what gives? The non-$100 pricepoint—caused in part by the smaller volume produced— and the lack of Windows. Consequently, Intel's Classmate, for one, is killing them. After the price climbed over $100, Libya, Nigeria and Pakistan went with Classmate, in part because it runs Windows XP. Libya's technical advisory committee chair said flatly: "The Intel machine is a lot better than the OLPC. I don't want my country to be a junkyard for these machines." It bought 150,000 Classmates. Russia's buying a "low-cost" laptop from Asus (presumably the Eee) to lojack with $3 Windows that Microsoft's offering bootleg-prone countries.

Given the hostile, competitive world market, "Mr. Negroponte has abandoned his initial strategy of trying to persuade a half-dozen developing countries...to buy one million laptops each." So we're seeing them in our own Third World backyard and being given longer to give one and get one. The official numbers for the first nine days, btw, are 45,000 laptop pairs. While impressive, it's a far cry, even with those sold to Peru, Uruguay and school systems thrown in, from the expected "initial orders of five million to eight million."

Still, Negroponte sounds surprisingly gracious and hopefully sincere in his sentiment that

"From my point of view, if the world were to have 30 million" laptops made by competitors "in the hands of children at the end of next year, that to me would be a great success," he said in a recent interview. "My goal is not selling laptops. OLPC is not in the laptop business. It's in the education business."