India set to buy 250,000 XO laptops from OLPC (One Laptop Per Child)

Struggling in the recent times, the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project in India has got big boost, with the Government of India signing agreement with the organization to buy 250,000 XO laptops of the organization.

India has placed order for 250,000 OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) XO laptops for its schools, after its own $10 laptop project has failed. India has realized that it is virtually impossible to develop a $10 laptop, and thus has decided to go for the OLPC’s cheaper laptops.

OLPC’s XO laptops will be purchased for the students throughout the country. The 1500 Indian Schools will be supplied with the latest batch of 250,000 OLPC XO laptops. However, it is unknown that if OLPC will offer the latest version of XO laptops with upgraded processor and storage capacity.

According to analysts, OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project, which lags behind Intel's competing Classmate PC program in total sales and deployed units, will certainly be benefited by India's purchase of 250,000 XO units. The purchase will help the OLPC to recover some of its lost credibility.

The One Laptop Per Child Association, Inc. (OLPC) is Cambridge, Massachusetts based non-profit organization, founded to supply an affordable laptop for each child in the developing world. The mission of the organization, led by chairman Nicholas Negroponte, and Charles Kane, President and Chief Operating Officer, is "to create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning”.

The OLPC is funded by member organizations, including AMD, Brightstar Corporation, eBay, Google, Marvell, News Corporation, SES, Nortel Networks, and Red Hat. The current focus of the OLPC is on the development, construction and deployment of the XO-1 laptop.

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