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Up to 10 million units by the end of the year says Quanta

This week the OLPC group announced that it has finally sealed a confirmed order of one million units of the XO laptop. Originally, the group announced that Nigeria was the first to place an order for one million units, but later revealed that Nigeria was only considering and did not confirm the order. Later on, Libya announced its confirmed order of 1.2 million units but did not indicate whether or not it would purchase all of the units at once or in batches.

The confirmed order this week for the XO machines is a combined order made from several countries: Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand and Uruguay. The main manufacturer for the XO units will be Quanta, which confirmed to reporters this week the mass production of the laptops. Quanta indicated that the laptops will cost each country roughly $130 USD but will drop down to $100 with further production.

According to Quanta, there is a potential to ship up to 10 million XO units in 2007. A total of seven countries have signed up to purchase the units. Interestingly, Quanta indicated that its margin on the laptops were very low, to keep the nonprofit goals of the OLPC project. "OLPC is a nonprofit organization, but Quanta is a contract manufacturer, a for-profit business. We can't not charge a fee for making the laptops," indicated a Quanta representative.

Some analysts expect that the price for the XO machines will drop sooner than expected because of competition. Intel announced its Classmate PC late last year along with the Encore Mobilis tablet. Intel is currently testing its Classmate PC in Brazil.

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Specs?
By daftrok on 2/16/2007 7:43:14 PM , Rating: 1
Anyone know what the tech specs are on these things?




RE: Specs?
By MDE on 2/16/2007 7:57:55 PM , Rating: 2
RE: Specs?
By bottle23 on 2/16/2007 9:46:53 PM , Rating: 2
RE: Specs?
By daftrok on 2/16/2007 10:01:53 PM , Rating: 2
DAMN! A 7.5" screen with 1200*900 resolution?! Talk about overkill.


RE: Specs?
By nomagic on 2/16/2007 10:43:46 PM , Rating: 2
That equals to 200 DPI, which would be pretty nice for reading PDF documents.

I am sure the designers used 200 DPI display on purpose.


How many PC support people per child?
By jmunjr on 2/16/2007 8:08:57 PM , Rating: 2
So who is gonna get these things working and fix them when they are broke?




RE: How many PC support people per child?
By bottle23 on 2/16/2007 9:57:05 PM , Rating: 3
How about you read about it?
http://www.laptop.org/

Have you actually tried one of these things?

When they were here at Sydney for the Linux Conference, I got to play with an early pre-production model.

You'd be surprised how rugged they are.
(1) No moving parts.
(2) Runs on Linux.
(3) Designed to withstand environments of the developing world.

The best thing I like about them is their display. You will have no problems seeing the display in direct sunlight. (Something you can never do with a regular laptop).


By jtesoro on 2/17/2007 4:15:45 AM , Rating: 2
You sure that there are no moving parts on this thing? The picture seems to suggest that the screen swivels. And I read that there's also a hinge that allows you to set up the screen in a couple of different ways.


By jmunjr on 2/17/2007 8:03:18 AM , Rating: 2
How does trying one have anything to do with my question? It was a fair enough question. I already knew it ran Linux etc, but there will be some that need work at some point.

I can't imagine they don't have something in place to deal with support issues, but if they don't the laptop owner(s) won't be able to go find just any old computer guy(if one is even around), because, well, it runs linux on some atypical hardware...

Oh, and I read about it. Please tell me what page answers my question? I don't have the 20 minutes needed to scrutinize every sentence. I don't expect you to, but I thought maybe someone already knew. Plus, if supporting them is an issue it might be something I might have an interest in exploring.


SPAM TIME
By Schadenfroh on 2/16/2007 11:35:24 PM , Rating: 4
quote:
Nigeria was the first to place an order for one million units


My junk mail folder is doomed!




RE: SPAM TIME
By jkostans on 2/17/2007 12:06:39 PM , Rating: 2
No I don't want your huge sum of money from a deceased oil merchant in Iran who happens to have my email for no reason and also happens to have no family or friends who can inherit the money and the money will disappear if I don't reply back asap.

Thanks and god bless!


RE: SPAM TIME
By Schmide on 2/18/2007 3:00:30 PM , Rating: 2
Took the joke right out of my outbox


Buy these?
By Guigsy on 2/19/2007 7:37:32 AM , Rating: 2
At one point they talked about a 'Buy 2, get 1' scheme where you pay double the cost that developing countries pay, you get an OLPC for yourself, and the other goes for free to a kid in the developing world as a kind of sponsorship. Anyone know when they are starting this?




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