OLPC plans $75 notebook

One Laptop Per Child project to rollout new PCs in 2010

The One Laptop Per Child project (OLPC) has announced plans for a notebook computer that costs just $75.

Developed by Nicholas Negroponte and MIT Media Labs in 2005, the OLPC project aims to provide inexpensive notebooks for children in the developing world.

The project launched its first notebook, the XO, in 2007 with a target of selling 100 million machines by 2008. Around 600,000 machines have been sold. In mid-May it announced a deal with Microsoft to make Windows available on the XO notebook.

This week the the XO-2 notebook was announced, which will be available from 2010 for $75 per computer.

The XO-2 is said to be about half the size and much lighter than the original XO, making it easier to carry to and from school. It has two touch-screen displays, so it can be opened like a book or used with one screen displaying a keyboard for typing.