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Story URL: http://hardware.silicon.com/desktops/0,39024645,39161101,00.htm

$100 laptop mega-order 'a myth'
Argentina, Brazil and Thailand round the table, not the chequebook

By Jo Best

Published: Tuesday 01 August 2006

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, which aims to get low-cost Linux laptops into the hands of children in the developing world, has denied reports it has hit the four million order mark.

Press reports said Argentina, Brazil and Thailand have all already placed orders with the foundation.

OLPC programme director for the Middle East and Africa, Khaled Hassounah, told silicon.com that the four million figure is not yet confirmed: "The orders have not been placed yet but we are in active discussion with those governments towards finalising an agreement."

The OLPC foundation has asked that all interested parties wait to see a working machine before placing their orders, a spokeswoman added.

The laptops will only enter production once orders totalling between five and 10 million have been placed.

It's not all been plain sailing for the project recently however. India, which had been considering placing its own order for the $100 laptops, decided against taking the plan any further. India's education secretary Sudeep Banerjee said at the time: "We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools."

The project has some big name supporters, including AMD, Google, Nortel and Red Hat, but it's come in for its fair share of criticism of late.

Two-thirds of silicon.com's CIO Jury described the project as "fundamentally flawed". Nick Clark, director of IT services at Tower Hamlets College, added: "A wind-up laptop may keep going but what is it going to be used for without the communications infrastructure? It may be better to invest in that infrastructure and provide a cheap mobile phone with browser to access it."

David Daoud, analyst at IDC, said the project must first overcome issues with manufacturing, logistics and business model before it can experience any degree of success.

He said: "If this is successful some five to eight years from now, it will impact only a single-digit share of the market - five to seven per cent - which is the education market. That's low."