When the OLPC initiative first hit the news back in 2005, I remember having a lot of admiration for the program. The goal of building a laptop in 2005 - back when even low-end notebook computers were well over $800 - for $100 was ambitious, but respectable. Distributing computers to low-income countries in the hopes of improving education seemed like a great idea at the time.
In 2006, the first machine (the XO-1) was delivered, and while it was impressive, it fell short of a few goals. It cost close to $200, and while rugged and innovative, its hardware was pretty limited; still, for the time it was rather inexpensive. Unfortunately, looking back - it seems now that in 2005 this was a "right now" solution to a problem that would have to be solved in the future.
The ASUS Eee PC came out in 2007 and very quickly, low-cost / moderately powered laptops became mainstream. They weren't nearly as rugged as the XO-1, but the hardware and price were comparable.
In 2010, low-cost Android tablets started appearing. In 2011, many low-end (but capable) Android tablets could be purchased for about $100. It's possible that Android is a better platform for something like this, with its wide adoption and large developer community. There are plenty of applications available, and more coming all the time - many of them free and educational.
The OLPC project designed the XO-3, which should attempt to mitigate this situation. It's meant to be released this year and is expected to cost under $100.
This newest product could be the educational tool originally intended; tablet computers can be so straightforward that anybody with a basic exposure to technology can pick them up and use them. And herein lies the latest problem.
My grandmother had a hell of a time trying to use her first computer (way back in 1999). Granted, computers were a lot harder to use then, but she just didn't have the basic exposure to technology necessary to figure it out. Within a few years, she managed to figure out enough to get through her normal usage patterns, but I still got lots of support calls about "the Internet being broken" and the monitor not turning on. It took time, practice, and study for her, as well as support from her family.
Now if you give a computer to a child in Peru who hasn't even seen a cell phone before, and hasn't had the basic exposure to technology as those of us in the US, how can they be expected to use it?
If you can't teach kids how to use it, if the thing isn't simple to use, if it's not universally easy to understand, it doesn't matter how inexpensive it's going to be.
Will the XO-3 change this?
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