Amazon to sell laptops from foundation
Low-cost laptops from the One Laptop Per Child Foundation of Cambridge will go on sale at Amazon.com this holiday season, making the $200 computers available for the first time through a retail store.
The foundation's founder, Nicholas Negroponte, said the deal with the online retailer should eliminate delivery problems that arose last year during the first effort to sell XO laptops to the public.
The IDG technology news service first reported the Amazon arrangement yesterday after a foundation official in Bangkok revealed the plan. Amazon officials did not respond to phone calls seeking comment, and though Negroponte confirmed the report, he refused to provide details.
"Amazon does not announce such things until the site is ready," said Negroponte. "That is the reason we are not talking about it."
The foundation developed the XO laptop to be sold in bulk to developing countries, for free distribution to school children living in poverty. So far, about half a million laptops have been delivered, but the foundation had anticipated a higher volume of orders. In a bid to speed up distribution, the foundation last year launched its "Give One Get One," or G1G1, program. During November and December, consumers in the United States and Canada were asked to pay $400 for two XO laptops, and donate one or both of them.
About 188,000 laptops were sold under the G1G1 program, 100,000 of which were donated. But the program was plagued by "fulfillment" problems, as American and Canadian purchasers were forced to wait months for delivery of their machines. Foundation officials apologized for the problems and vowed to do better.
Amazon.com ships millions of items every day and should have little trouble with timely delivery of the computers.
"Many things in the last G1G1 did not run as smoothly as we would have hoped," Negroponte said. "Those things, mostly related to fulfillment, by their nature, are what Amazon can fix."
IDG also reported that the foundation is preparing a new version of the XO laptop capable of running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP operating system, as well as the free Linux operating system. Many governments had resisted the original Linux-only version of the XO, because they want their children trained in Windows, the world's most popular operating system for personal computers.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com. 