One Laptop Per Child is Coming to Europe

Written on 14th November 2008                                                                                                              2 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.

At the World of Health IT Conference in Copenhagen, founder Nicholas Negroponte announced the launch of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organisation in Europe.

From November 17th the OLPC will be selling their laptops online via Amazon across 27 European countries, including Switzerland, Russia and Turkey.

The laptops will be sold under the Give One, Get One scheme which has been running in the US for some time already. Buyers purchase one for themselves and the second laptop is donated to a child in a developing country.

The Give One, Get One programme was first run in the US in December 2007, selling approximately 190,000 machines. The organisation however has recieved many complaints from buyers who never actually recieved their product, and this is what has lead to the partnership with Amazon. Additionally, the organisation has faced competition via Intel and their Classmate PC which has seen considerable uptake, particularly across South America.

The XO laptop is expected to price at approximately £268 (313 euros).