Why cant the american adopt such a plan do they really not understand everyone does not have a computer or a way to get to one?
They manufactors wont lose anything if they can get a good contract for the mas production it creates jobs and improves education.But that would take money away from the computer company tyrants so atleast we can dream

It is sad to see Quanta was unable to settle for 3$ profit per laptop. A lot of hope generating promises were made with this movement and it seems profit wasn't the primary concern. I believe a lot of companies cut deals with Quanta to make the $100 price-tag work, and they are likely unhappy about the change.

I understand that in the large scale the economics of "Only" making $3,000,000 profit on the first order of 3 million units is not huge. (That is the profit Quanta would have made on the $100/per unit price tag)

But I thought this was also a philanthropic effort to help educate the worlds poorest children?? At the new price a country could have bought 1,750,000 units instead of only 1,000,000 units at this new price. Meaning that 750,000 children will now be with out because the budget has been squeezed by corporate greed!

Qaunta should have taken the $3.00 profit/per unit and deducted the rest of the cost from their taxes.
What is wrong with that? (did any one notice that they were making $3.00 profit per unit before the price increase....Umm... NOT taking a loss-AT ALL!!!!)

And, if the price was raised, apparently just to make more profit (not to make the laptop better) than why is this new profit going solely to Quanta and not distributed to all the other companies who are donating time/services/parts??????

Qaunta will make another $225,000,000 profit from the first 3 million units ordered....WOW 1/4 of a billion Dollars!!! Man, do they have a good business model!!!! (sarcasm)

The headline should have read "Company gets filthy Rich on the backs of the Worlds Poorest Children"

This disgusts me

According to the figures in this article, the price change moves the profit margin from 3% to 45%. Can this be accurate?

I find it a shame that 45% of the price is motivated by profit.. Considering the "real" non monetary value of such an endevour I find it despicable that a whole segemnt of the population will not get this because of a profit motive.. why not bring that down to 25$ per laptop..Qunta would have less profit but much more in moral authority, honour and pride for having really helped people in need..
Peace.

That’s 44%!!!! I wonder how much of that per unit goes to pay the hourly wages of the assemblers. How many do they manufacture per hour, and how many people are required to manufacture one unit? It seems rather high as a % but makes you stop and think about the profit companies make on a discount notebook ($600 US?).

Is it me or is 78% profit for a not for profit initiative a bit much. Hmmm 78 * 3000000 = 2.34b dollars ... Wow thats a lot of money. Guess that company was really in trouble!!

Sounds like classic bait-and-switch to me. Talk about going from philanthropy to greed...

I thougt that the point of this initiative was to provide inexpensive laptops to children around the world? Now it seems like just another "Good Business Plan" aimed at making a handful of individuals more wealthy.

The OLPC has 1 million orders. At a 78% (!) profit margin, that's US$78 Million lining the pockets of Quanta. So while Quanta execs are now exceedingly richer. only about 1/2 of the kids expectin a computer this year will actually get one.

Does this make anyone else angry?

What about providing laptops to school children in our own country first?

So the point of raising the price is so that Quanta can increase their profits from $3 per to $78 per? Gotta love greedy people.

I was so excited over this project but that news is disappointing a lot. There is a huge difference between 100 and 175 $s. and just as the prices go in my country (Turkey by the way) I am expecting to see these babies around 250 $s. SIGH...

Is this available to children in the U.S.? If so, I'd like to place an order for about 1,000 laptops for children in Baltimore City Schools.

It runs Linux, not Windows.

Is that supposed to be Microsoft Windows??? They were supposed to run Linux... I see no indication anywhere that they reversed their decision to reject MS's offer to create and operating system for them.

"OLPC software is a set of carefully chosen and integrated linux applications, creating an innovative user environment."
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Software

So it really begs the question: how much of the rest of this story is made up?

USA citezens already have computer access. Stop whining. The reason they developed these low-power "laptops" (they have have like an 8" screen, a 300mhz CPU, 500mb flash drive, and 128mb ram with a special wifi router intergrated into it. It's more like a ginormous PDA) was because conventional computers could not be deployed to these regions: there's no network and no electricity. Quit yer whining. You can buy a *real* laptop in the USA for under $350.

Pakistan is harboring bin laden, and we are giving them laptops at a cheap rate? What?

fair price still. they shouldn't have annoucned $100 and then change their minds down the line though. but geeze..it's still only $175 bucks.

complainers: how many laptops have you built and sold for $100?

I think we should all let the customer service department of these greedy jerks know exactly how we feel.

Please e-mail them at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

These people actually have the incredible arrogance to list the OLPC project as 'nonprofit' on their website. They do not specifically say they do not profit, but the information is presented in such a way as any reasonable person would assume this.

I want to know what else these people make so I can not buy it for the rest of my life.

Why dont they sell this thing on the public market for a higher price providing profit to the company and the cost of production for the $100 dollar model.
It seems the reality here is that everyone was lied to about the purpose of this little laptop. How clever its like watching a bad super hero movie in which the villain has plans to make tons of money on the poor little children.

Instead of jacking up the price to increase profits; couldn't they just use those same children the laptops are intended for, as slave labour to BUILD the damn machines -

just like every other big company...?!

If they really will run Windows, instead of their own proprietary OS, that would certainly explain the $75 price increase. If that's the case, turn your anger about profits towards Microsoft, since they could sell copies of the OS for $1 for something like this if they really wanted to.

Here is my point: How many of these people in 3rd world countries need a laptop? If your basic human needs aren't met (i.e. food, clothing, shelter), a loptop is useless regardless of how much it costs.
Greed? Yeah, we see plenty of that with American companies. Remember, the price of a barrel of oil goes down and you don't see a reduction in price. That's good ole Americans screwing Americans. Congress won't touch the oil industry, they need their money to get reelected. Besides, they aren't hurting for cash, so the price at the pump doesn't bother them.
Also, has everyone forgotten about the poor people in America? Charity starts at home, right?????

What a great country...

The reliability of this article is questionable. First is that OLPC uses Linux and the gui is based off of the gtk engine. The OLPC project has already turned down offering Microsoft Windows on the laptop due to increased costs because there would need to be more storage.

I will suggest people to read the news directly from the AP ..

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Hundred-Dollar-Laptop.html

My English might be bad, but serious, I dont see Quanta taking all the increase as their profit from the original news

please point out where exactly it is and quote it.

All I have read, and I will quote it
"The XO machines will be made by Quanta Computer Inc., the world's leading manufacturer of portable computers. Quanta agreed to take a profit of about $3 per machine, less than what it gets from mainstream PC companies, Negroponte said.

Even so, the machine -- which boasts extremely low electricity consumption, a pulley for hand-generated power, built-in wireless networking and a screen with indoor and outdoor reading modes -- now costs $175. The One Laptop project takes an additional $1 to fund its distribution efforts."

Hello John,

I think Pak is playing a much larger role in fight against terrorism. Pakistan economy is low because of the fight in War on Terror. People are not investing in Pakistan because of the War in Afghanistan and Iran. I think Pakistan should be given free laptops as it will encourage more people to have access to education. This will also reduce the poverty there and the perception of people would change in favour of America.

Leo lo mismo articulo, y su ingles es correcto. Creo que tienes razon! Por que es que "greedy corporations" siempre son acusadas de avaro? For those of you who speak English, take a step back from your preconceived notions and nationistic pride and take a decent look at the story!

Unbelievable that $78 profit per unit is going to be earned by Quanta.
This defeats the whole purpose of selling affordable laptops to the world's poor and raising the availability of technology and access to the internet.
It's time for an open letter to the heads of OLPC.

My problem is not with Quantas, OLPC, or anyone involved with the program, My problems is with whiny liberals who think that the poor need laptops. Last time I checked you do not need a laptop to live. Computers are LUXURY ITEMS. THE INTERNET IS A LUXURY ITEM. These are not things needed to sustain life. Food, Shelter and Clothing are necessities of life. Get these needs met first. Then teach them skills to make them employable, Then once they can provide for themselves food, shelter and clothing. then they can save their money and buy laptops. LIKE EVERYONE ELSE WHO PULLED THEMSELVES BY THE BOOTSTRAPS, got jobs, provided for himself and his family.

Quanta's is a buisness, buisness are in buisness to make money, pure and simple. If they want to sell laptops at $175 instead of $100 and people will pay for it. Let them. The Market works.

I've been following the OLPC project pretty closely and this article seems a bit ... off.

First off $100 was the long term goal. They have said for quite a while now that they will definitely be able to start off under $200 but that the first run of these would absolutely not be able to reach the lofty goal of $100. As they refine the process and find cheaper ways of doing things they will whittle the price down to that goal.

Second what the hell? I've never heard of any involved company getting a profit like that. My guess is that some idiot was not paying attention and made some really stupid assumptions about what was going on.

Thirdly... Windows? What? News to me. As far as I was aware it was running a very finely tweaked version of Linux. In fact that was where a LOT of volunteer effort came from for this project.

Lastly... These are not totally impoverished nations, but nations that are being left behind in the information age. This project is intended to bootstrap them up to join the rest of the connected world and raise the standard of living nationwide within a generation.

It is still a very noble project, but the goal obviously is not to "feed the poor".

My guess is that this article is complete bunk.

I can't find any support for the claims that the XO is costing $175. Everything I've found puts it closer to $135 and the OLPC project projects that it will be UNDER $100 within a year or two.

Now I do think I found where the utter bullcrap of Quanta making stupid profit off of this came from. Aparently there are some tentative plans for Quanta to produce similar units for $200 retail. That would put it at an estimated profit of around $70 before distribution.

Also the XOs will not be shipping with Microsoft anything, BUT Microsoft IS working on a compatible operating system for them which can be optionally loaded. It will probably not be available at first and will probably never ship with it, but it looks like the option will be available.

I would ask Mark Raby to please to better fact checking before posting something like this. I have no idea where exactly he got some of this crap but it looks like the majority of it is completely baseless.

It has been known for a couple years now that the OLPC pricetag was $140. It jumped to $176 due to changes in the hardware specification which put a slightly more powerful processor and twice as much memory into the laptop. According to Meryl Lynch, the OLPC display itself costs $28 to manufacture in volume, the system board $75, and they pay AMD at least $25 per CPU. The AP made up its own news about the price increase and assumed on their own that the upgrade meant it would be running Windows. The OLPC project's president held a press conference afterwards driding their statements and went on public record stating, "We are a free and open-source shop. We have no one from OLPC working with Microsoft on developing a Windows platform for the XO."

John:

Do you have proof, that Pakistan is hiding Bin Ladin? If, so would please send it to the Pentagon or the super-sleuths at CIA. If not then please stop making ignorant statement, about a nation which has lost 1000 soldiers in battles with Al-Qaeda. I bet you did'nt know that and of course if you are from India, your statement is understandable. How could you be so self serving as to deprive Pakistani children of the gift, after all, if you take their nationality away, they are like you and I, humans.

Mike Bax