SlashGear Japan
Thanks to production delays that have seen a scheduled October start pushed back to November 12th, the OLPC “XO-1″ laptop – previously known as the $100 laptop, but the price of which crept up t $188 at the last count – will not begin to deliver until December at the earliest. Blamed on “last-minute bugs”, the hold up has cast doubts on whether One Laptop Per Child will be able to fulfil Christmas orders both to Peru, Uruguay and South America, as well as to the North America and Canada customers who will be able to pre-order the machine as part of the company’s “Give 1 Get 1″ scheme.
The program – in which buyers in North America and Canada can order two XO-1 laptops, one for themselves and one donated to a young person in a developing nation, for $399 – was to mark the launch of production; OLPC estimate eventual yearly manufacturing of 100,000 units.
As it is, Chief Technology Officer for OLPC, Mary Lou Jepson has indicated that while some buyers will receive their machines before Christmas, others will have to wait on a first come, first served basis. This is in addition to the 25,000 sales maximum for the scheme.
