Inexpensive laptop project reversed

Project to reduce price of laptops to developing nations goes to US first

27 April 2007 9:47 GMT / By Ryan Haynes

The concept that £50 laptops were to become available to developing nations to help the world's poorest children was perhaps too good to be true.

The non profit "One Laptop per Child" project has said that it will be using America to sell its cheap laptops and has even raised the price tag to $170.

In a statement Nicholas Negroponte, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology academic who founded the project, told analysts and reporters that "We can't ignore the United States. We are looking at it very seriously".

Even though the founder recognises that US schools are already heavily funded compared to developing nations, he wants to make sure that the poor in the father nation have access to the units.

The computers only use two watts of power and use a a string pulley to charge its battery, a keyboard that switches between languages, a digital video camera, wireless connectivity and Linux open-source operating software tailored for remote regions.

Full tags

Hardware, Laptops, OLPC