Reuters has an article today stating that the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) group is considering selling a retail version of their kid-focused, XO laptop for this holiday season. Sales–if they do happen–will be done through the Internet. The price? Somewhere between $350 and $525.
Even though I’m curious to see what the device is like, would I get one at $525? Unlikely. I realize the idea is to take part of the revenue from XO sales and feed it back into the system, but at more than $500, there are probably better devices available.
Now it would be interesting to check out the display which is supposed to work well in sunlight as well as indoors–using a novel dual mode where indoors a color mode is provided and outdoors the display turns to black and white and no backlight. I’d also like to see how the battery power lives up to its stated 12 hours. The writing strip looks interesting too. Does it have the resolution to support handwriting? If the Mono group at Novel can get Silverlight running in a Linux browser, would it work on the XO? With ink? Hmmm. Likewise, does the reading mode (where the display folds down) feel “right?” And then there’s the software. Are there some interesting things to learn there? I’m curious, but then I think about the price. For a bit more I could get a full functioning UMPC from Samsung. And there are other classic notebooks and towers in this price range too.
Now at $350, I might begin to consider it. At $176 or whatever the base price really is, I’d probably get one. Whether I’d use it or any of the kids I know would use it I don’t know. I’m skeptical. Maybe the youngest ones would get a kick out of it. However, most of the kids I know are already used to fairly rich computer experiences. I don’t know how the XO would stack up. Would it even compare well, to lets say the iPhone or other celll phones they have?
Would I recommend local schools to load up on XOs? The price may sound quite attractive to them. I hope they resist though. At least see how the XO plays out. My guess is that there are lots better choices. Further, I’m probably biased as a Tablet developer, however I imagine the writing and touch experience on a UMPC or Tablet will outshine the XOs. Will XO work well with handwritten math? Or with something like ArtRage? Seems to me for a bit more money, schools can have much better apps and user experiences. This is still a guess on my part though, since the XO isn’t out yet. We’ll have to see how the XO ecosystem builds out. Should be interesting to watch.