One Laptop Per Child’s recently announced “Give 1 Get 1” program is a bit of a gambit: By encouraging American and Canadian consumers to buy their own XO laptops, the project runs the risk of drawing unfavorable comparisons to more powerful home PC’s.
“Sure enough, the bloggers and the ignorant have already begun to spit on the XO laptop,” writes David Pogue of The New York Times. “Clearly, the XO’s mission has sailed over these people’s heads like a 747.”
In a glowing review, Mr. Pogue calls the low-cost laptop “a kid magnet” and hails the computer’s battery life, its built-in programs, and a number of other innovations. Mr. Pogue makes a good point: Compared with commercial laptops, the XO will seem a bit puny. But the project’s goal of keeping production costs down has actually forced developers to come up with a really nifty machine. —Brock Read
