Negroponte: Rich countries to buy laptops for poor
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One Laptop Per Child project leader encouraging wealthy countries to buy $100 laptops for poor economies.
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Intel Corp  and Microsoft Corp   are supplying Libya's government with 150,000 rugged  laptop computers that cost $200 to build and are designed to  meet the needs of children in developing countries.
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The One Laptop Per Child Foundation indicated Monday that it might begin selling a version of the "$100 laptop" it is now producing for educational use. The system would become available by the holiday season for a price of about $350 USD.
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Greeted with fanfare and kudos when its prototype PC was shown off by Nicholas Negroponte and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan more than two years ago at the World Symposium on the Information Society in Tunis, the One Laptop Per Child project is now beset by waning orders and competition from commercial vendors that threaten to sideline the nonprofit effort.
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Digital guru Nicholas Negroponte says he is developing a laptop that will sell for less than $100 (Â£53).
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Businesses in Europe, Asia can net bucks for outdated computer equipment, company says.
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SAO PAULO, Brazil  - Brazil should end the year atthe top of the list of countries with the highest rate ofpirated personal computers in its market, outranking China forthe first time, according to a study released on Thursday.
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The One Laptop Per Child Foundation (OLPC) has teamed up with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to launch a pilot project in Haiti, the first time the group will be able to comprehensively evaluate the idea of giving laptops directly to students as a learning tool.OLPC, which makes&#160;the $188 XO laptop&#160;aimed at kids in developing nations, will contribute $2 million&#160;to the project, while IDB will provide a $3 million&#160;grant. The project aims to distribute XO laptops to 13,200 students and 500 teachers in 60 Haitian primary schools, the groups said in a statement.The organizations are financing the project to test whether the use of laptops in schools on a one-to-one basis can improve teaching and learning in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world.&quot;We have studies about the impact of computer labs and shared computers in the classroom, but there&#39;s never been a comprehensive evaluation of the learning model based on giving each child a laptop,&quot; said Emma N&#228;slund-Hadley, the IDB&#39;s project team leader. &quot;This is crucial to determine the effectiveness of this model under conditions of extreme poverty and as a tool for accelerating learning.&quot;One aim of the project is to determine how the laptops can be used to help solve problems such as a shortage of qualified teachers, as well as educating children of different ages and grades in the same classroom. The Haitian government hopes the laptops can help speed up the learning process for students who enter school late or have to repeat grades, according to the release.Teachers and students will be trained how to use the laptops and carry out basic maintenance and trouble shooting. Some students will receive vocational training to handle more complex laptop repairs.The project will be evaluated by UNESCO&#39;s Regional Office on Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will conduct standardized math and language tests before and after the pilot project to determine performance improvements. Observers will also gauge whether the laptops affect attitudes and behaviors regarding school management, the value families place on education, the use of laptops at home, and the perceived educational progress of the students.The OLPC project started as an attempt to build a $100 laptop and work with governments to pass them out to kids in poor nations, but the XO, will likely end up costing nearly double that amount at first. The organizers of the effort, led by academics and researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), hope high-volume sales of the device will drive down costs.The goal of OLPC is to make sure nobody misses out on the benefits of computing. The fear is that&#160;the price of a PC&#160;is keeping too many people in developing countries from learning how software, the Internet and communications via computing can improve their economies, job prospects and lives, or that poor countries will fall further behind the modern world due to their inability to access computers.&#160;
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As more computer buyers turn to laptops, lesser-known companies that produce PCs will have a hard time keeping up with the big guys.Photos: White-box choices
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Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder of both the MIT Media Lab and the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child, delivers the last keynote at the American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences annual meeting, focusing on the groundbreaking work of the OLPC, which has delivered thousands of laptops to children in the developing world. Alexis Madrigal reports from Boston.
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MIT is looking for a few good innovators to help the world's poorest billions thrive.
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard and itsÂ Watergate re-enactmentÂ now own the tech scandal headlines, but during the summer our attention focused on other alleged malfeasance, by the company with the normally shiny image: Apple Computer. A British newspaper claimed that one of Apple's contract manufacturers in China, Foxconn, owned by Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., wasÂ mistreating its workers, through low pay, long hours, and poor living conditions. What went unreported from this saga was that we so rarely see headlines that contain the words "Apple" and "China." Microsoft, Intel, GoogleÂ -- their ongoing conflicts with the Chinese government and the Chinese consumer are bread and butter for business and technology reporters in China. But Apple? In Beijing, the best evidence that Apple exists is an iPod billboard that faces one of the city's main arteries, and advertising during televised English soccer matches. There are quite a few iPods peeking out of people's pockets, but when it comes to which laptops are being tapped upon at Starbucks, it's HP, it's Dell, it's Sony, but except for foreigners, no Apple. The fact is, when it comes to China, Apple as a computer manufacturer and retailer is nowhere. The simple reason for this is that Apple is asking too much of Chinese consumers. The biggest factor is price. Service, quality, prestige, satisfaction -- these are extremely secondary concerns to the Chinese consumer. People bringing home $400-$600 per month are considered middle class in this country. They can afford to buy computers, and for them, price is the singular issue. An Apple machine in China costs between double and four times as much as a competing Wintel box. The computer whiz kid down the street can build you a generic box with a pirated copy of XP for about $400. An entry-level Lenovo computer probably costs about 20 to 25 percent more, followed by foreign name brands. Apple is at least double the no-name box. So, one month's salary to give your kid a computer and access to the Internet, or two months'? What would you choose? The second reason is availability of software. In China, if you're using Apple and you need software, you have to buy the legitimate product. For Apple, that means that their system is rejected, except by high-end graphic designers and die-hards. The cost of ownership of an Apple machine plus legit software to run on it is just too high for most people to consider. Third is service. Until recently, having your machine break down was the thing that every Apple user in China prayed to avoid. Repairs are much more accessible now, but still there are only one or two authorized service centers in Beijing, whereas fixing a Windows box is far simpler. Apple's China strategy for its computers seems entirely different than for the iPod. While its music player is accessible, affordable, and increasingly ubiquitous, for desktop hardware it seems to be following Vertu, the luxury phone maker, instead of Nokia. Unless Apple chooses to address this market on its own terms, there won't be any harvest for it here.
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African countries are bracing themselves for this month's rollout of US$150, Linux-based laptops for school children under the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative.
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Uruguay becomes the first country to place an order for the low-cost children's laptops.
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A growing international trade in discarded mobile phones is helping the worldâs poor. But will it poison the earth?
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The so-called $100 laptops for children may make it to India after all.
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African countries readying themselves for the roll out of $150, Linux-based laptops under the One Laptop Per Child initiative.