Education Law

One Laptop Per Child’s $100 tablet

Remember that One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) tablet concept we showed you back in December? On Thursday, the foundation announced a partnership with silicon solutions maker Marvell to make that concept a reality by 2011. They plan to launch the device at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011 for less than $100. The hardware is being produced by Marvell using its Moby Platform, featuring a built-in camera for video conferencing, and support for 3D graphics and Flash.

Although the OLDPC device will run the traditional Sugar operating system as an application, the Marvell version could ship with the Android operating system from Google, the Windows Mobile platform, or Ubuntu.

The device appear as if it will be ultra thin. OLPC Chairman Nicholas Negropante says the tablet will be part laptop, iPad, and Kindle. However, it likely won’t include many features Negroponte had described: it won’t be all-plastic components for durability, it won’t be waterproof or half the thickness of an iPhone, and its Marvell processor will likely be just one gigahertz.

For many, the features lacking from the new tablet may represent another in a long history of disappointments from a nonprofit that has often failed to meet its near-science-fictional aims. People have called Negroponte’s concepts unrealistic, but “we think unrealistic is good,” says Negroponte. “The world needs some people who aren’t realistic, or you’ll always get the same old stuff.”

Watch the video below to learn more.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on May 28, 2010 (boomark / email).