Now a year later they opened another plant, increased the volume (thanks to other contracts as well) and are making money. I think something similar will happen with OLPC. As the production volume goes up the costs should go stumbling down. We are talking about millions of units here!

According to laptop.org the hand crank doesn’t come standard any longer (the picture is one of an earlier prototype). This is a sure sign that they are trying to reduce costs.

While OLPC has been a “hot” thing lately, and the prototype is “almost there” after many years of development, a friend of mine in Taiwan, who worked in a chip company that are responsible for OLPC’s wireless chipsets, said that even the production cost is a bit more than $100. Let along all the development cost.

Sure. I would love to have a $100 laptop. Especially one with a hand crank so you can use it on a long haul flight. However it is more likely that the developed world needs to pay $200 a lappy to supplement the kids in those countries who really need them.