CES 2007: $100 laptop project wants to sell the device to consumers

10 January 2007 12:02 GMT / By Amber Maitland

The One Laptop Per Child organisation wants to sell you one of its “$100” laptops – but you'll have to buy two of them.

One you'll get to keep; the other will go to a child in the developing world. The organisers hope to put each buyer in touch with the child who receives a twin computer, as the buyer effectively sponsors a child.

Speaking to the BBC, Michalis Bletsas, the chief connectivity officer for the project, said that eBay is going to help them sell the machines to consumers.

The laptops are designed to be durable and easy-to-use, with a dedicated user interface called Sugar, based on Linux.

However, Pocket-lint recently handled one at CES, and felt that the device didn't seem as rugged and robust as it was hoped to be.

The project is working with Google, which Bletsas called “the glue to bind all these kids together”.

He also said that organising the consumer sale of the device is “much more difficult” than making the laptop.

“How to do [it] efficiently without adding to the cost is difficult."

“We're discussing it withour partner, eBay. We need to minimise the supply chain cost, which is pretty high in the Western world.”

Full tags

Hardware, Laptops, OLPC, CES2007, Intel