Yves Béhar of San Francisco design studio fuseproject has unveiled plans for the third generation of the One Laptop Per Child project.
The latest version of the affordable computer – which will retail for an estimated $75 and which is called XO-3 – is a table-format device with a semi-flexible plastic screen.
The XO-3 is expected to ship in 2012.
See previous stories about the One Laptop Per Child project on Dezeen:
XOXO laptop (May 2008)
Yves Béhar wins Design of the Year award for One Laptop Per Child Project (March 2008)
One Laptop Per Child Charity Auction (December 2007)
Here’s some info from fuseproject:
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Two years ago, around this time of year the One Laptop Per Child XO laptop was launched with Nicholas Negroponte. Now more than one million laptops have been distributed to children around the world to help further the mission of providing education and access to information for all… like in Uruguay where every public school child between 6 and 12 years old has one.
While the distribution of OLPC XO continues, today we and OLPC are presenting the XO-3 (http://www.fuseproject.com/#blogEntry79). Our new design features an all plastic tablet screen which is semi-flexible and extremely durable (compared to current glass screens which crack upon impact), and just like the original XO, the display can be optimized in both transmissive and reflective modes for indoor and outdoor lighting conditions. The XO-3 supports many use scenarios to fulfill kids’ learning needs: from horizontal book mode to portrait reading mode, to multi-touch, so many hands can play and learn together on the same screen, to a full-touch keyboard and a back facing camera.
December 22nd, 2009 at 8:26 pm
XO-3 before anyone has seen an XO-2, and before the XO-1 is finished.
It’s a technology project, not an education project.
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:02 pm
I really like this design much better than the last version =D
December 22nd, 2009 at 11:10 pm
Just what African kids need… 75 dollar laptops!
Who needs food when you’ve got Google at your feet.
December 23rd, 2009 at 3:22 am
……..so what your saying is every African (AFRICAN!) child is starving and hungry?
December 23rd, 2009 at 4:27 am
looks better than many of e-book readers .. I want one!
December 23rd, 2009 at 6:24 am
in response to the previous comments… the laptops are given to children in need at no cost- consumers buy one for themselves at $75 and then one is donated at no additional cost. the xo-1 is obviously already finished as it has been distributed across the globe. i think this is a really pivotal project to help developing nations that technology- and the internet- have left behind. unfortunately for the rest of us, previous generations have created a non-sustainable and consumer driven world that we are now expected to carry on and embrace… might as well work towards giving everyone across the globe a more equal chance at it if we can.
December 23rd, 2009 at 7:03 am
Does it come with a spare set of batteries? Or a sponsored energy bill?
December 23rd, 2009 at 8:37 am
could they be solar powered?,
i know of a family in the Philippines who got donated a computer to help their only child study at home but couldn’t afford electricity so the beneficiaries paid for that too.
December 23rd, 2009 at 8:46 am
Love the Design. I’d get on of these for USD 75 no doubt but I doubt it will be producable for USD 75.
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:00 am
E-readers just got owned!
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:42 am
Ergonomics is an optional nowdays. Everyone has got a laptop, no one needs it.
Using laptop causes sever problems to human body, expecially if used for many hours per day.
Just wanted to say this. Not saying this project is not good! It looks really good if it works.
December 23rd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
it’s basiclly a bigger-screen version of Iphone……
December 23rd, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Hello everybody, here (Uruguay, South America) all pupils have an XO, and free internet.
They learned to give a great use, including the most disadvantaged children.
One of his projects, for example, is to recharge the XO with stationary bikes or a carousel while they play. Certainly knowledge is the best food.
December 24th, 2009 at 11:59 am
I think its noble in its ambition as a project and also helps push the design of laptops and computers in general that we all use but I think that this project that I know from here in ireland – http://www.camara.ie does it better by taking ‘obsolete’ pcs or ones that are not fast enough or shiny enough for us in the ever more consuming west, refurbish them and ship them to africa for the same purpose.
December 24th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Well said – SEBA!
December 25th, 2009 at 8:40 am
every african child IS starving.
December 26th, 2009 at 3:00 am
$75 dollars does indeed seem extremely far fetched. Perhaps at double the thickness. The problem with such a design is that the software design becomes far more important than the exterior design, infact the exterior becomes negligable, without a good software experience the object would be useless.
December 27th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
It’s getting a bit old, I think, always trying to be negative and sardonic thinking it proves how terribly clever you are. It’s actually possible to have two thoughts in your head simultaneously, it’s actually possible to both feed starving children AND provide them and other poor children with these laptops.
Providing these children in low income countries with the same access to information available to children in richer countries is incredibly important. It’s obviously not about giving them the chance to use Google or YouTube, but to even out the differences between north and south and to enable them to take part in the world around them. It’s all about education and empowering the poor. If the laptop looks good and is easy to use in addition to this, how can that be a problem?
December 27th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
I can’t believe how negative some of these comments are!
This is a very good and needed idea. And what is the purpose of design in the first place, if not to provide simple and cost effective solutions to existing needs in society? The age of design without reach should be about over now.
Also.. not everyone has a laptop, even in “developed” countries. A lot of people are poor here as well. Children starve everywhere unfortunately. But if there is something useful that can be done about any human right, talking about education here specifically, then all good ideas are welcome.
December 29th, 2009 at 9:09 am
It is a grate project, who did this is helping.
If someone worry about hunger in Africa would never be against any other support. I totally agree that knowledge is the best food.