December 2nd, 2007
OLPC sees charitable and government orders
The Boston Globe is reporting that OLPC is selling hundreds of thousands of computers, driven both by a large government order from Peru (260,000 machines) as well as two successful charity campaigns. The Give One Get One program (in which individuals can purchase two laptops, one for themselves and one for a child in a developing country) as well as the Give Many program (for charities to simply contribute many laptops to the effort) have seen strong support in North America. Sales from the Give One Get One program are hovering around $2 million dollars per day and one wealthy benefactor (Carlos Slim) purchased 50,000 laptops for distribution in Mexico.
So what does this boil down to?
Computer industry analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies Associates Inc. in Wayland [, Massachusetts], a longtime skeptic of the OLPC plan, was impressed by the foundation’s early sales. “I remain generally skeptical, but that’s some good news,” said Kay. “If you were a budding computer company, you’d be happy to sell 300,000 or so units in your first season.”
But Kay still predicted trouble ahead for the foundation, unless it stops acting like a charity and more like a traditional computer business. “They have to survive on selling products, having satisfied customers, and having people come back for more,” he said.
Is this model sustainable or is the XO really just a proving ground for useful mobile technologies that will hopefully make their way into classrooms sooner than later? The next year will be very telling, as more of these computers get into the field and we see if Nicholas Negroponte’s vision of students fixing their own laptops in the absence of real technical support or local OEM commitment can actually work.
Follow Chris Dawson on Twitter! Christopher Dawson is the technology director for the Athol-Royalston School District in northern Massachusetts and a member of the Internet Press Guild. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations, but always keep in mind that the opinions expressed here are his own and not those of his daytime employer, even if he talks incessantly about his day job.
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