January 7th, 2008
OLPC campaign nets $35 million; 100,000 units go to emerging markets
The One Laptop Per Child foundation said Monday that it raised $35 million from its Give One Get One campaign that just ended.
The campaign, which ran from Nov. 12 to Dec. 31, sent 100,000 XO laptops to locales such as Afghanistan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mongolia and Rwanda.
Given that the OLPC program was a give one ge
t one the foundation’s statement implies that 200,000 XOs were produced. That tally is significantly off its previous pace, which should have led to about 490,000 units by the end of 2007.
Also see: Lessons learned: Two weeks with the XO laptop. Unboxing gallery (right).
In a statement, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte, who has been in a war of words with Intel, said:
“The generous response was overwhelming and significantly helps us move forward our mission of getting laptops into the hands of as many underprivileged children as possible. Give One Get One also quickly broadened the global community of XO laptop users and we’re already getting lots of feedback and creative input about ways to improve the laptop even further.”
OLPC also noted that the first promotion made it possible to seed launch programs in new countries. Interest in the project has also picked up.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.
Subscribe to Between the Lines via Email alerts or RSS.
