The XO $100 Laptop

[Bob]

Wow. Just read this from the bbc:
BBC NEWS | Technology | Portables to power PC industry

The XO laptop may have been created to help children in developing nations, but its influence is likely to be felt far beyond the classroom. The PC industry is going to be among the first to feel its impact in November 2007 when, for a week, the gadget goes on sale to almost anyone that wants one.
Before now few have had a chance to test out the capabilities of the device and properly compare it to the portable computers - laptops, palmtops and notebooks - available in high street stores and online.

I want to buy one of these. Don't you think this will shake up the whole PC market. I can't imagine Dell and others being too happy about this. I think its great. What a brilliant way to give to charity.

Whats that old saying

Give a man a bag of rice and he'll feed his family for a week. Give his children an XO $100 laptop and let them create the next Google or Facebook.

The world economy and balance of power is changing...Stuff like this will speed it up even more.

[MarkP]

Do you know who manufactures these units and are they available outside of the developing nations?

[JimClark]

Was reading an artical in the times last week, we wont see these units here. They are specifically for developing / emerging markets. The software that the laptops will come with is also geographically non transfereable.

[james]

You won't see those laptops, but these ones claim to be available:

medisoncelebrity . com (I can't post a direct url)

They claim to be $150 plus $30 postage, under £100 at the current exchange rate.

I have no idea if they are genuine, but they claim to be a Swedish company. Do your own research on this one.

[JenniP]

I would certainly steer clear of the medison, all reports I have seen scream scam.

As for the XO, you will be able to buy them in the USA and perhaps else where, but there is a catch. Its only available as a "Buy one, donate one" scheme, however it costs $400 (Thats 200 each), however they did say the $100 price was once they had it in real volume production and right now they haven't.

Thats the main point of this scheme to (1) Get firm orders for more laptops to they can get the price down, (2) Reduce the price for developing countries as they will have a stock of pre-paid for laptops to include with any order which will lower the unit cost.

If your interested (May be USA only) have a look at xogiving .org

Jen

[james]

Originally Posted by JenniP

I would certainly steer clear of the medison, all reports I have seen scream scam.

Thanks for that Jenni. I'm not so sure that this is a scam, but I would like to hear from someone who has had a good experience before I bought one.

Originally Posted by JenniP

As for the XO, you will be able to buy them in the USA and perhaps else where, but there is a catch. Its only available as a "Buy one, donate one" scheme, however it costs $400 (Thats 200 each), however they did say the $100 price was once they had it in real volume production and right now they haven't.

Thats the main point of this scheme to (1) Get firm orders for more laptops to they can get the price down, (2) Reduce the price for developing countries as they will have a stock of pre-paid for laptops to include with any order which will lower the unit cost.

If your interested (May be USA only) have a look at xogiving .org

Jen

I once got a perfectly serviceable laptop from studentlaptops (look it up on Google). If they are still going you can get out of date second hand laptops for very low prices.

[Conscept]

If this is for real it's awesome I think, Helping poor countries get into the whole technology thing especially with all the different ways of making money at the moment. How good are the laptops are they really poor quality?
I might get one myself to be honest.

[JenniP]

The XO laptop is real, is being made and certainly is not a scam. As for whether its a good laptop however, well that depends on what you want to use it for.

It has a interesting screen, it is build for education so dont expect to see much other than education software and perhaps web and email. However I did see an article awhile ago that did say you could put Windows on it, but its not really powerful enough to do it in a meaningful way.

Jen