The tablet PC segment is booming right now which is reason enough to take the plunge into what can be termed as the fastest growing computer scene at present. And the latest to test the waters in this hotly contested segment is the non profit organization ‘One Laptop Per Child’ that had set out to develop a low cost rugged laptop to cater to the requirements of students in the developing countries. However, the news should not come as a surprise as it was back in May that we had reported of such a development, though what was missing then was specific development plans which we now have.
However, while the OLPC mission did not exactly reap benefits and had missed its mark by quite a wide margin – it had aimed to develop an educational laptop that would cost less than $100 though what they eventually came out with cost around $199 – the organization though has received fresh funding with the purpose of developing the tablet version of the educational laptop named ‘XO’ that it had made.
OLPC, on its part, remains unfazed of its earlier venture and is confident of creating a tablet for the mass market that will pack in superior performance while keeping the impact on monetary resources to the minimum. In fact, buoyed by the fresh inflow of funds which amounts to a quite impressive $5.6m made available by the chip and electronic component maker Marvell that has also become the supporter and sponsor of OLPC in 2009, OLPC has stated they can come up with the first working prototypes of the intended device as early during CES 2011, scheduled to be held in January.
Likely to be named XO-3, OLPC has also stated the device will be ready in all its glory by 2012 itself with the Marvell’s Moby device that is likely to act as the base on which the new tablet will be built. Also, its the Google’s Android that will in all probability be the operating system of the new tablet.
The new venture will also allow OLPC to get into the development of more mainstream products, more so after its initial venture at developing the $99 XO laptops failed to make much of an impact. In fact, the XO laptops sold in far less numbers as was earlier anticipated as its just 1.4 million XO laptops that has found takers till now which is paltry in comparison to the Intel’s Classmate PC that has shipped in much higher numbers.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.