One Laptop signs up with Amazon
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organisation has signed a deal with Amazon to sell its low cost laptops. The online retailer will help with its next Give 1 Get 1 (G1G1) programme that is due to begin in late November. Under this scheme people can buy one of the XO laptops for themselves and donate the other to a school child in a developing nation.
It is hoped the deal with Amazon will iron out the problems OLPC encountered when it ran the G1G1 programme itself. Dreamed up by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte, the OLPC was set up to create and build a powerful laptop for school children in developing nations that sold in the millions and cost less than $100 (£56).
The resulting XO laptop sports distinctive green and white livery, has wi-fi built in, can be powered by a pull cord, and comes loaded with educational software.