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Brazil gets first laptops for kids

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project began handing out the so-called $100 computers for early testing, but Thailand isn't getting any of the first lot, at least for now.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva received the first version of the laptop, and 50 were expected to be tested in Brazilian schools beginning this week.

The low-cost computer was delivered to Silva by Nicholas Negroponte, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founder of the OLPC, a nonprofit organisation which aims to develop the machines for children worldwide.

Mr Negroponte is due in Thailand next month to discuss the OLPC project.

Deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra had told Mr Negroponte Thailand might buy the computers for Thai school children. But new Minister of Information and Communication Technology Sitthichai Pokai-udom has said several times the government has no budget and no plans to buy the OLPC laptops. He has called the machine "a toy" but promised to meet Mr Negroponte when he comes to Bangkok.

"We are working on this project in at least three continents," Mr Negroponte said in Brazil, and named Argentina, Nigeria and Thailand as probable customers.

Under the OLPC plan, Mr Negroponte's project is to produce the computers in China, and participating governments are to pledge to buy at least one million, and distribute them to school children.

Despite the "$100 laptop" project slogan, the colourful, Linux-run laptops currently cost about $150 each. The planned assembly line by the Taiwan company Quanta is to be in Shanghai.

Bangkok Post