Mass Production of XO Laptops Has Begun
One Laptop per Child, a non-profit organization launched in 2005 by MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte to design, manufacture and distribute laptop computers that are sufficiently affordable to provide every child in the world access to new channels of learning, sharing and self-expression, announced that mass production of the revolutionary XO laptop computer began yesterday morning at Quanta Computer’s manufacturing facility in Changshu, China.
Taiwan-based Quanta Computer, the world’s largest notebook computer manufacturer, has recently doubled its manufacturing capacity, in part to prepare for the production of the XO laptop from One Laptop per Child. On early November 6 (local time), Quanta kicked off mass production in its giant new Changshu manufacturing center, two hours northwest of Shanghai. XO laptop unit volumes will ramp up over time, leveraging the newly available capacity in the Changshu plant.
“We are very proud to be a partner of One Laptop per Child and to start volume manufacturing of the highly innovative XO laptop,” said C.C. Leung, Vice Chairman and President of Quanta Computer. “We believe that the XO laptop will have a transformative power on the future of developing nations.”
“Today represents an important milestone in the evolution of the One Laptop per Child project,” said Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child. “Against all the naysayers and thanks to great partners such as Quanta, we have developed and now manufactured the world’s most advanced and greenest laptop and one designed specifically to instill a passion for learning in children.”
The commencement of mass production means that children in developing nations will receive XO laptops starting this month. Residents of the USA and Canada participating in the Give 1 Get 1 program (November 12 — 26) will start receiving laptops in December 2007. For more information on the Give 1 Get program, go to http://laptopgiving.org or call 1-877-70-LAPTOP (1-877-705-2786).
About One Laptop per Child
One Laptop per Child (OLPC at http://www.laptop.org) is a non-profit organization created by Nicholas Negroponte and others from the MIT Media Lab to design, manufacture and distribute laptop computers that are sufficiently inexpensive to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. These XO laptops will be rugged, open source, and so energy efficient that they can be powered by a child manually. Mesh networking will give many machines Internet access from one connection. The pricing goal is $100.
The XO laptops will be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. Starting November 12 and for two weeks only, individuals in the U.S. and Canada will be able to participate in the Give 1 Get 1 program and for US$399 get a laptop while giving one simultaneously to a child in a developing nation. For more information on the Give 1 Get 1 program, go to http://www.laptopgiving.org.