Want to make a difference in the world? One way to do so is to give a laptop to a child in a developing country.

 

OLPC is a nonprofit organization whose primary goal is to place a laptop, the XO laptop to be exact, in the hands of every child in the developing world. (Read LAPTOP's exclusive hands-on, an 8-year-old's opinion, and see the pictures.) These laptops are engineered specifically with third-world countries in mind, and haven't been available to consumers, at least up until now.

 

OLPC today announced its 'Give 1, Get 1' program. From November 12th through 26th only, U.S. and Canadian customers will be able to purchase two XO laptops for $399 through the program's Web site.

"We are making the XO available to U.S. and Canadian consumers as a financing scheme for the developing world, to trigger global demand and government closure," Nicholas Negroponte, founder of OLPC, told LAPTOP Magazine. "The laptop is so cool and in such demand; we are leveraging its attractiveness as a means to bring laptops and connectivity to the poorest and most remote children, particularly in Africa." 

 

During the Give 1, Get 1 program the standard XO laptop will be available for $399 and will not only give customers one of the most talked-about laptops, but also the opportunity to make a tax-deductible charitable donation to a child of one of the world's poorest countries. In the meanwhile, effective today, the public can go to www.XOgiving.org or call a toll-free number at 1-866-XO-GIVING (1-866-964-4846) to give a laptop, without receiving one.  A charitable contribution of $200 will provide a child in a developing country with an XO laptop computer of their own.  The small, green laptop, which is the size of a lunch box, supports mesh networking and includes a Linux operating system dubbed Sugar, a dual-mode display that makes the computer readable in sunlight. (The machine can be charged with a solar panel and a peripheral hand crank, but OLPC won't be providing these charging options during the November buying period.) Though the laptop is no longer priced at its intended $100, OLPC hopes to drive the current $188 (or in the Give 1, Get 1 case, $199) price down as production increases.

 

OLPC CTO Walter Bender maintains that the "first people who order will have their machines by Christmas. Everyone else will get their machines by the first quarter next year." He anticipates that the machine will be very popular. "It's nice as a machine to use to sit and read a book on the beach, but even better for our intended audience of kids." OLPC hasn't determined consumer availability beyond the two weeks in November, however; according to Bender, "I don't think we are going to open up the doors for consumer availability beyond this limited offer. Our goal is to get laptops to kids in the United States, which can be accomplished through standard mechanisms of working with school systems. This program is really to help prime the pump in the least developed countries."

View: OLPC XO laptop photo gallery

 

Don't miss any of our coverage on the OLPC XO Laptop:

My 8-Year-Old Reviews the OLPC XO
Our kid tester found the groundbreaking XO machine to have plenty of shortcomings. But considering its mission as a children's laptop for the developing world--and its ultra-low price--it has great potential.

Hands-On with One Laptop Per Child's XO Laptop
We visited the OLPC Labs to get our hands on the much-hyped laptop. Created with children of the developing world in mind, this notebook might just change the face of mobile computing.

Intel vs. OLPC: A Battle of Good Wills
Both OLPC and Intel are vying to equip underprivileged children with aggressively priced laptops, but there are some key differences both in terms of their approaches and the hardware itself.

Can the $100 Laptop Change the World?
In this exclusive interview with LAPTOP, Nicholas Negroponte speaks freely on the ambitious One Laptop Per Child Project.