The One Laptop Per Child project, which at one time aimed to make $100 laptops available to every child on earth, has always inspired me with its vision. Of course, a visionary idea and a visionary implementation of a strategy are two different things. Perhaps this is why OLPC’s XO-1 laptop was a massive disaster, costing nearer $200 and being rejected by key governments including India. In fact, only 800, 000 OLPC’s have been sold to date compared to Intel’s Classmate PC which has sold 1 million.
That’s likely why OLPC’s XO-2 will be produced and distributed roughly the same way as the Classmate PC. OLPC will provide the reference design and make it freely available to manufacturers, distributors, and whomever else could make the project a success. One of the other important features of the XO-2 aside from its supply chain, is its $75 price tag. That should give it some mainstream appeal and hopefully fuel OLPC for a longer a year. Yep, the project has roughly a year of cash left, still burning through $500, 000 per month despite laying off half of its staff recently.
So while it seems OLPC and its leadership are getting things organized, there isn’t much time left to turn things around. And possibly even worse for the project is a new competitor on the block.
India, one of the world’s largest populations and one of the largest in need of OLPC, originally turned down the XO-1 citing hidden costs and questionable technology. The country responded with a $10 laptop project–that’s not a typo–and will have a prototype on display February 3 at the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology.
The project has been in the works for three years and has involved the work of Indian educational institutions, research institutes, and manufacturers. 
While the device currently sits at about $20, mass production would bring the price down.
The $10 laptop project is focused on promoting and improving higher education in India and would eventually reach 18, 000 universities in the country. Already four major textbook publishers have agreed to provide textbooks through the project’s accompanying Sakshat e-learning portal.
To me, it seems that India’s project is steps ahead of OLPC, before an official launch. Personally, I would like to see both projects succeed. It’ll only make the world a better place. But provided India’s $10 laptop is a capable device when it rolls out, the One Laptop Per Child project is more likely to fail currently.
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