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2nd gen e-book machine dropped by OLPC—but group will do a paperlike 3rd gen device
November 7, 2009 | 10:13 am
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By David Rothman
One Laptop Per Chlld has “scrapped plans unveiled in May 2008 for an e-book-like second-generation XO laptop, instead focusing on an upgraded version of the current XO and designs for a ‘3.0’ version of the device that will be ‘more like a sheet of paper.’ So reports Xconomy. Photo shows the dropped design. The “1.75” XO laptop will boast a faster CPU, from ARM.
About the third-gen, OLCP founder Nicholas Negroponte says he is aspiring toward “a single sheet, completely plastic and unbreakable, waterproof, 1/4" thick, full color, reflective and transmissive, no bezel, no holes. 1W. $75, ready in 2012.”
I can see the logic here. Microsoft is apparently coming out with a twin-screen tablet, and while it’s for a different market, OLPC would prefer to lead the pack. Not only that, imagine the boost that the new design could give e-reading not just in developing countries, but also here in the United States.
In related news from the Xconomy article, the International Telecommunications Union is working with OLPC and others toward high-speed Net service for half the people on earth by 2015. Hmm. Does that include Comcast subscribers during peak periods?
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Comments:
How sad it is to see Mr Negroponte not even trying to pretend anymore. ‘Aspirational’ is meaningless. And after scrapping 2.0 before they even showed a prototype, can he really expect anybody to believe him anymore?
I expect that one or two more rounds like this, and not even Teleread will pay attention anymore. Negroponte will speak, but nobody in the know (outside gullible know-nothings in the general press) will report it, at least not until there is a product on display and played with.
The world has just passed him by, as it passed by the ‘Crunchpad.’ What dreamers like Mr Negroponte ought to be doing is working with established device makers to rebrand and rebadge existing, shipping hardware for the kids, and working in the real-world of shipping and deal-making. This of course is not Mr Negroponte’s forte, or even within his skillset, apparently…wasn’t OLPC going to get a real CEO sometime within the last year, and ‘promote’ Negroponte to ‘Emeritus’ and ‘Ambassador’ status? They really need to do that.
And we all had such fond hopes for OLPC when the first announcements of the ‘$100 laptop’ first broke.
OLPC’s XO-2 was, and the XO-3 is, concept machines, not planned for production machines. The XO-1 (1.1 million distributed, Geode proc), the XO-1.5 (VIA proc, in B3 now and in production in early 2010, hundreds of thousands of orders confirmed and expected), and the XO-1.75 (ARM proc, work to begin as XO-1.5 production ramps up) make up the series of here-and-now machines going out to children around the world. Project management is by the OLPC Association, the manufacturing/deployment part of One Laptop. These machines all run the Sugar Learning Platform; the new XO-1.5s will run the latest version of Sugar with updated eBook Activities. Sugar is also available for any other PC, netbook, or Intel Mac on Sugar on a Stick, a liveUSB version which starts the computer directly in Sugar.
Yes, the ever-receding almost-here perfect solution. I agree with Pond that Negroponte has made a career out of over-promising and underdelivering. Yes, the guy has lots of interesting ideas. Yes, a super-cheap unbreakable, flexible blah-blah would be wonderful. So would a lead-to-gold machine but I’m not going to put my life on hold while I wait for it.
I hope my cynicism will be proven wrong this time.
Rob Preece
Publisher