OLPC Reveals Second Generation XO

The OLPC non-profit organization has announced that work is already underway on a second-generation version of its XO laptop computer.

Calling it the "XO-2", the organization hopes that the laptop will be able to advance new concepts of learning, while the cost of the laptop will also be lowered to make it affordable for volume purchase by developing nations.

"Based on feedback from governments, educators and most important, from the children themselves, we are aggressively working to lower the cost, power and size of the XO laptop so that it is more affordable and usable by the world’s poorest children," said Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child. "The delivery of the first generation XO laptop has sparked tremendous global interest in the project and provided valuable input on how to make the XO laptop an even better learning tool moving forward."

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The first generation XO laptop went into production in early November 2007, and there are approximately 600,000 units in deployment in a number of countries including Peru, Uruguay, Mongolia, Haiti, Rwanda, Mexico, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iraq, Afghanistan.

Set in early 2005, the original target price of the XO laptop was $100 although it now costs $188. OLPC is aiming for an even lower target price of $75 with new developments in display, processor and other hardware and software technologies to make it possible to achieve in the future.

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While the first generation XO laptop requires one-tenth (2-4 watts versus 20-40 watts) of the electrical power necessary to run a standard laptop, the XO-2 will reduce power consumption even further to 1 watt. Lowering the power consumption will reduce the amount of time required for children to generate power themselves via a hand crank or other manual mechanisms.

The XO-2 laptop will be about half the size of the first generation device and will approximate the size of a book. The new design will make the XO laptop lighter and easier for children to carry. The XO-2 will continue to be in a green and white case and sport the XO logo in a multitude of colors.

The XO-2 laptop will have dual-touch sensitive displays to enhance the e-book experience, with a dual-mode display similar to the current XO laptop. The design provides a right and left page in vertical format, a hinged laptop in horizontal format, and a flat two-screen wide continuous surface that can be used in tablet mode. Younger children will be able to use simple keyboards to get going, and older children will be able to switch between keyboards customized for applications as well as for multiple languages. The dual-touch display is being designed by Pixel Qi.

Availability of the XO-2 is planned for delivery in 2010. XO-1.5 will be released in the spring of 2009 with the same design as the first generation but with fewer physical parts and at a lower cost than XO-1.