Mobile Computing News

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is actively getting involved in donating laptops to children in developing countries every day, but this project is not exempted from the economic crisis. Indeed, the worldwide recession has affected OLPC too and forced the OLPC founder to restructure and streamline its process. Recently OLPC has cut off 32 employees from its staff as a part of its streamlining process and the rest of the officials are bearing with salary cuts.

OLPC is focusing on the development of a $100 XO laptop for children in developing countries. But now the commercial vendors too have introduced their portable computing machines at a nearly equally competitive price. For prices as low as £160, the Asus Eee PC 701 4G was already nipping at the XO laptop’s heels, but with a new wave of netbooks approaching the $100 range, things look much more difficult for OLPC. This naturally makes OLPC face tough economic times, especially at this time of recession. However, the OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte says, “OLPC will be dedicated to bringing the cost of the laptop down to Zero for the Least Developed Countries — the $0 Laptop.” This is a very bold goal set by the OLPC team.

The last year was full of struggles for OLPC. OLPC’s top three executives resigned as they felt that the OLPC is getting more interested in laptop distribution instead of economic development. Still, Negroponte believes that the OLPC has ability to keep donating laptops in the developing nations. He says, “The future brings with it some uncertainty, some difficulty, but also the excitement that comes with the rededication to a cause, and a new path that will allow us to realize the moral purpose of OLPC.”