Laptop on a mission will be sold in U.S.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The project that hopes to supply developing-world schoolchildren with $188 laptops will sell the rugged little computers to U.S. residents and Canadians for $400 each, with the profit going toward a machine for a poor country.

The One Laptop Per Child project expects that its “Give One, Get One” promotion will result in a pool of thousands of donated laptops that will stimulate demand in countries hesitant to join the program. It will be offered for two weeks in November.

Originally conceived as the “$100 laptop,” the funky green-and-white low-power “XO” computers cost $188. The laptops’ manufacturer, Quanta Computer Inc., is beginning mass production next month, but with far fewer than the 3 million orders One Laptop Per Child director Nicholas Negroponte had said he was waiting for.

Negroponte said the availability of donated laptops would not be the sole condition for many countries weighing whether to place multimillion-dollar orders. But “it just triggers it,” he said. “It makes it all happen faster.”

By opening sales to people in the U.S. and Canada at www.xogiving.com, “Give One, Get One” will delight computing aficionados because the XO is unlike any other laptop.

It has a homegrown user interface designed for children, boasts built-in wireless networking, uses very little power and can be recharged by hand with a pulley or a crank. Its display has separate indoor and outdoor settings so it can be read in full sunlight, something even expensive laptops lack.

The machines use the Linux open-source system and don’t run Windows; Negroponte expects that to be possible soon, but Microsoft Corp. insists it can’t guarantee that, given the machine’s idiosyncratic specs.

The catch is that “Give One, Get One” will run only from Nov. 12 to Nov. 26. Negroponte said the limited availability is partly necessary so the nonprofit doesn’t run afoul of tax laws, but mainly designed to create scarcity-induced excitement.

“We need that burst,” he said.