Give One Get One $399 XO laptops go on sale November 12th

Hamelin

I forgot I signed up for this mailing list and just got this email today:

You are receiving this email because you requested a reminder from One Laptop per Child about our limited-time "Give One Get One" program. Starting Monday, November 12 at 6:00am EST, you will be able to donate one XO laptop to a child in the developing world and also receive a laptop for the child in your life, by visiting www.laptopgiving.org or calling toll-free 1-877-70-LAPTOP.

"Give One Get One" is the only time we are making the revolutionary XO laptop available to the public. For a donation of just $399 ($200 of which is tax-deductable), you will be giving the gift of education. Additionally, T-Mobile is offering donors one year of complimentary access to T-Mobile HotSpot locations throughout the United States, which can be used from any Wi-Fi-capable device, including the XO laptop.

We will send you another email when the program begins on November 12. Until then, thank you for your interest in OLPC. We hope you'll join us in our mission to bring education and connection to children in even the most remote regions of the globe.

I've been following the "$100 Laptop" for a while now, and while they haven't quite hit the goal of selling them at that price, they're finally going on sale to the general public.

I was planning on getting of these but of course the program comes around when I don't have the cash for it. But I think it's a pretty good deal, as I understand the laptop is quite a piece of work and there's the added plus of giving a needy kid a laptop, along with the tax deduction and year's supply of HotSpot service (which, after doing a search on google for the price looks to cost $29.99 a month).

Anyone planning on picking one of these up?

mario

I had strongly considered signing onto this program back when we thought they would cost $100. Also the original design had a hand-crank charger built-in, and I'm a little sad to see that omitted in the final design. I'll probably pass.

Hamelin

The hand crank is still there, they moved it to the power box thingie on the cord due to issues they had with structural integrity and the crank shaking up the laptop too much.

They're trying for $100, but you could really only get that price if you were purchasing them in bulk on a huge scale.

As it stands for 400 bucks you get a $200 tax deduction and a year free of that T-Mobile thing (which would normally cost 30 bucks a month, so that's $360 right there for that), which could probably be used with other laptops if you had the right wireless card.

I'm really considering it, but I am flat broke.

geoko

I'm intrigued, I'll keep an eye on this.