Individual sale?

The launch plans for the laptops are mainly via the governments of the individual countries involved.

This is creating an artificial shortage for the countries where private sector is the main driving force behind identifying and funding innovative technology to improve the skills of their own people.

I would like to take my own country South Africa as an example. Due to the extreme lack of skilled and computer literate people, many companies in South Africa have been trying and failing to bring computer training to schools in underprivileged communities.

Currently the cost of a PC is no less than $400. This is placing such a high financial burden on the companies who are trying to make a difference in our country that most are calling it an impossible task. By creating a low cost PC and then forcing it’s distribution to be through our government, you are effectively rendering the attempts of the private sector even more futile and impotent.

Even if you did not distribute it to us at a discounted rate, at least make it available to us. Please consider using a minimum order size, rather than specific organizations as your barrier to entry.

--Jaco Vosloo 15:52, 3 April 2006 (EDT)

I agree. The advantage of a low cost, kinetically powered laptop is going to be much wider than just developing countries. The funding project I would love to see would be where I could buy a laptop for my family in the first world at three or four times the cost with the remaining funds going to provide three or four children with identical laptops. --Michael Miller --130.216.191.184 01:16, 5 April 2006 (EDT)

Just to add a vote here: In the UK there are many families who could use a basic machine capable of (alas) Word compatible wordprocessing and Web access. I'd pay a factor of three to four for a machine like this on a sponsorship basis, provided I knew the surplus was providing screens in target countries.

--Keith Burnett

There is a sign-up page at pledgebank.com where you can make a non-binding commitment to purchase the olpc laptop for $300 US, with the understanding that the additional money will fund machines for the third world. The pledge creators are trying to get 100,000 signups so that the commercial incentive will be worth the attention of the olpc project; keep in mind that currently olpc has a small staff dealing directly with large foundations and national governments, so it will take a great many individuals to make enough impact to be worth the time this would take from olpc's other funding initiatives. Obviously, pledgebank has no affiliation with olpc, and there are no endorsements or legal burdens assumed or implied by any of this. Please don't sign up if you are not serious, though. --Charlie Brooks

---This project is too cool to ignore capitalism---

The OLPC laptop is a first rate techno gadget and I want one, every geek on the block will, and not just the famed "$100" but the duel-use screen, the crank power. The project needs to face the fact that we constitute market demand, and third world kids "losing" their laptops and ending up with $200US to feed their familes constitutes supply. OLPC needs to realize this and that crating a "with OLPC Tax" supply chain is a necessary part of meeting their goal. I am not going to run of to some impoverished nation and bribe some kid out of his laptop, but if somone else "aquires" these machines and puts one up on e-bay, I'm bidding.

--Dan Warren

Quanta

If there is a commercial demand for these units, then Quanta, the manufacturer, should be able to make them for commercial sale as well. The ideal for this would be for a charitable organization to be the reseller of the units with all profits plowed back into putting more units in the hands of kids in countries, like South Africa, where there is no special government deal. This allows the normal capitalist system of charitable organizations to function. The thing is that the OLPC folks need to spin-off this function into a separate organization so as not to distract them from their main goals.