Come November 12th, when the OLPC Give One Get One program starts taking orders for XO-1 computers, guess who will be managing the distribution of 25,000 Children's Machines for One Laptop Per Christmas Tree?
In what may be the smartest move by One Laptop Per Child to date, the XO computers will not be distributed by OLPC, eBay or even CompUSA, but Brightstar Corporation, which specializes in customized distribution and supply chain solutions for the cellular phone and mobile phone market.
And not just in the USA and Canada either. One Laptop per Child and Brightstar have also signed a comprehensive global sales and distribution agreement to take advantage of Brightstar's position as the largest distribution and supply chain solutions company in the world. As the press release notes:
Brightstar will help OLPC manage the many complexities of entering diverse markets - which can include different proposal and purchasing processes, financing and currency constraints, lack of infrastructure, and more.Interestingly enough, it was actually Brightstar, not OLPC that submitted the school laptops proposal to the Ceibal Uruguay RFP. It's also Brightstar that will be contracted by LATU Uruguay, the government entity in charge of Ceibal, to supply and maintain XO computers.Brightstar provides such sales and distribution services today to the wireless and consumer electronics industries, serving customers via a vast network of sales, distribution and manufacturing facilities in 49 countries on six continents. One out of every 20 wireless phones in the world is delivered via Brightstar's distribution network.
It was also Brightstar that joined Google, Red Hat, AMD and News Corp., as $2 million dollar founding sponsor of One Laptop Per Child. An investment that is now paying off handsomely for both OLPC and its new XO computer distribution partner.
Nicholas Negroponte has said in another interview that over 50 thousand people had already signed up at http://xogiving.org to be informed just around the time that it will be possible to order it.
So I don't think the quantity has to be fixed at 25 thousand for the "Give 1, Get 1" program in USA and Canada. I think it could easilly be 50 thousand and even more.
The point is to get this started, but OLPC cannot afford to bring more laptops in the US and Canada market then there will be demand for.
But I think that if there is greater demand than expected for it, then most probably OLPC can fill in all the demand that there will be before the 24st of November.
OLPC has said they would be building 40 thousand units the first month, then 400 thousand. So as long as they can can tap in and deliver some from the second batch before Christmas, then I'd say the "Give 1, Get 1" could be even more then 100 thousand worldwide.
Thinking OLPC's priority will be to deliver to Uruguay, Libya, Mexico, Italy (donating to a third world country) and all other countries that are signing the large orders.
"Give 1, Get 1" is mostly about paying for batches of 5000 to be sent to up to 20 of the worlds poorest countries as trials in those, and the ones to be distributed in the developped world are also about getting the attention and convincing the decision makers politicians and IT CEOs that live here. And are meant to involve all parents, teachers, researchers and software developpers of the developped world.
Nicholas Negroponte has said in another interview that over 50 thousand people had already signed up at http://xogiving.org to be informed just around the time that it will be possible to order it.
So I don't think the quantity has to be fixed at 25 thousand for the "Give 1, Get 1" program in USA and Canada. I think it could easilly be 50 thousand and even more.
The point is to get this started, but OLPC cannot afford to bring more laptops in the US and Canada market then there will be demand for.
But I think that if there is greater demand than expected for it, then most probably OLPC can fill in all the demand that there will be before the 24st of November.
OLPC has said they would be building 40 thousand units the first month, then 400 thousand. So as long as they can can tap in and deliver some from the second batch before Christmas, then I'd say the "Give 1, Get 1" could be even more then 100 thousand worldwide.
Thinking OLPC's priority will be to deliver to Uruguay, Libya, Mexico, Italy (donating to a third world country) and all other countries that are signing the large orders.
"Give 1, Get 1" is mostly about paying for batches of 5000 to be sent to up to 20 of the worlds poorest countries as trials in those, and the ones to be distributed in the developped world are also about getting the attention and convincing the decision makers politicians and IT CEOs that live here. And are meant to involve all parents, teachers, researchers and software developpers of the developped world.
> [...] An investment that is now paying off handsomely [...]
Isn't it a bit early to talk about handsome payoffs on a
$2M investment, just because revenues may tiptoe above zero?
I will give 2 buy 2 if they let me. One for the little sister of my wife in Thailand and one for my boy. Both 10 year olds.
Will they ship outside North America?
Can I get an electrical plug adapted to my country?
I've been following the development of OLPC for a while. I'm not a tech person in the least, but I find concept very interesting. I have been wondering (I can't find the information online... if it's there I would love for someone to point me to it) if the laptops will have a port for a mouse. A MOUSE??!! Why would someone need a MOUSE??? Children with disabilities need the ability to access techonology too. A mouse is often a very cost effective way of making a computer more accessible to a disabled person.
G1G1 is not quite as global as one might hope. According to the latest information from OLPC that we (OLPC Austria) got after many questions is that they're still working on arranging distribution in Europe for example. And it's not quite clear at this point whether G1G1 will be available in Europe come November.
That's also basically the same reply I got on my question on the "X0 giving" entry on the Wiki (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO_Giving):
"Will people in Europe also be able to purchase X0s via the G1G1 program?
not at the moment.
As far as I know, not. This has more to do with logistics, support and other bureaucratic reasons that apply to international commerce of electronic equipment and not an arbitrary decision that forgot or ignored the rest of the world. --Xavi 20:44, 10 October 2007 (EDT)"
Hi Jamie . . .
Anytime I end up using my wife's laptop (we all have Mac gear in our household) I always connect the USB mouse from my desktop machine into one of the provided ports. This works just fine. Small keyboards don't bother me (I'm a hunt and peck typist) but I absolutely hate the typical touchpads on laptops and this always allows me the interface that I'm comfortable with.
If the Sugar Linux software on the OLPC XO is configured the way that it should be, we should be able to simply plug in an off-the-shelf USB mouse into one of the 3 USB slots provided.
My idea (expressed here in others posts) would be for some enterprising third party manufacturer to make a nice rugged-yet-simple (forget wireless interface but also leave behind old-fashioned trackball technology) mouse the is color-coordnated with the green/white XO.
Since we're on the topic of computer mice I recently discovered the finger mounted optical mouse that uses a surface (not always a flat one) to reflect off. Seems ideal when normal mouse space is not available.
It uses a velcro strap that you poke your fore finger into and your thumb clicks on two switches or rotates a scroll wheel. The USB cable should plug into one of the three available on the XO.
It might be a good alternative for people with disabilities that have trouble using a standard mouse.
They seem to be for sale on eBay if you do a search there.
To Jamie Sue:
I've just tried using a USB mouse on my OLPC prototype and it works as expected.
Cheers,
Andres
Hi Andres . . .
This is good news. If a plug-in mouse works, I would hope that the USB ports on the XO are also ready-to-go for flash media backup devices and even external hard disc drives or CD/DVD-ROMs. Some have speculated that such devices won't work on the XO. What is your expereience with these?
Benjamin, mass storage devices such as USB flash drives work fine on the X0s (currently using a B4 with build 605). Once you plug in such a thumbdrive you can directly access it from within journal, copy/paste files, unmount it, etc. So external hard-drives also shouldn't be a problem. With regards to external optical-drives I haven't tested it myself but will do that tomorrow and report back here.
In general device support pretty much depends on the amount of drivers you want to include on a computer. For example the reason why Apple can claim OS X compatibility with a zillion printers is that they include several Gigabytes of printer drivers on a vanilla OS X install.
Ah, screw waiting until tomorrow to test this... I just connected a slimline-optical drive in a generic USB 2.0 enclosure to the X0 (as previously mentioned a B4 with software build 605). While the device didn't show up in the journal the console did tell me that it was being recognised. If I knew only a tad more about mounting devices and filesystems in Linux then it shouldn't have been a problem to mount /dev/sg0 to something like /mnt/cdr.
Good night,
Christoph
Thanks, Christoph . . .
I'm sure I'll have to ask again on exactly how to do it (I don't speak "Linuxese" yet) but it appears to be within the realm of possibilities. Good news.
Turns out I'm just too stupid to mount anything... Handed the laptop to my flatmate and after a minute he was back saying that everything had worked automatically anyway. :-|
So basically you connect the external optical-drive, the device is recognised and once you insert a cd/dvd you can find and access it by going to /media in the console.
what about external USB keyboards? do they work?
Well, I just got my OLPC via Fedex, on Sunday no less, and within 2 hours my mother-in-law bought it from me for $200 for an overseas trip she was taking that day.....Intuitive enough for a 70 yr old is quite a feat for a linux OS computer.....I found the features more than pleasing. 3 usb ports, headphone and mic jacks, card slot.....the screen pivots,twists and folds to a tablet if desired...key board is enclosed for water/dirt exclusion. Key tactile sense is good (analog), but keys are a little close together for rapid typing. Color saturation is not high but quite acceptable. The wifi has 128 bit WEP encryption with this software version (?WPA to follow?). All wifi sites are plotted out with avitars telling if they are OLPC's or not, or encrypted or not. The software included is amazing. synthesizer for music, word processor, calculator, measurement of distances between two OLPC's, waveform analysis, group study via wifi or on-line, firefox for browser with presets for educational sites...oh yes, it also has embedded mic ,video camera, and stereo speakers.
Don't yet know what the battery life is as the little darling was on the way to the airport before the factory charge was depleted, but it was in use for 3 hours and still had 30% charge left.
So what to do? I just supplied 2 more children somewhere with laptops.....
I Googled for "OLPC" + "Brightstar" and got this article. The title gave me a good laugh, given that there are still so many who participated in the G1G1 program, yet as of this date haven't received anything.
Brightstar, contrary to their name, appears to be a "black box" within which the shipment process is entirely obscured. I'll be trying to find contact information for someone within their organization today - wish me luck!
I would like to buy a few of these laptops anyone know of any reliable contact to help me? Thanks
Ebay is an option!
http://shop.ebay.com/items/_W0QQ_nkwZolpcQ20xoQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZR40QQ_mdoZ
This distribution is it real or hoax? I ve tried to buy 3 computers for my children in Nigeria but couldnt due unavailable, i need three,i wish to buy it not free,please contact me on how to get it thanks.