One Laptop unveils touchscreen model

The One Laptop per Child Foundation, a Cambridge nonprofit organization, is planning a new version of its inexpensive laptop for developing countries.

The new version, due out in 2010, will replace a traditional keyboard with a second touch-sensitive video screen. The screen can be configured as a keyboard or the device can be opened flat and used as an electronic book.

“You can fold it flat and use it as one continuous display,” said Nicholas Negroponte, the foundation’s founder.

Negroponte said the organization hoped to price the new computer at $75 each, compared with the $188 price for the current generation of laptops.

Mary Lou Jepsen, who left One Laptop per Child to launch a for-profit business, will work with Negroponte's organization to design the new laptop.

In addition, Negroponte announced the resumption of the get-one-give- one program to allow people in affluent countries to buy two of the laptops and donate one to a child in a developing country.

Negroponte said the program will resume in August or September and will be open to buyers in North America and Europe.

He said the previous program, which opened last year to people in North America, enabled the One Laptop to distribute 30,000 additional laptops to children in Rwanda, Mongolia, and Haiti.
(By Hiawatha Bray, Globe staff)