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OLPC to focus on large-scale deployments of XO laptops

Nonprofit organization One Laptop Per Child is shying away from small deployments of XO laptops to focus on large-scale deployments as it restructures to cope with the recession, NetworkWorld reports. OLPC is not selling laptops individually anymore and will focus on large-scale deployments that could top millions of laptops in countries, OLPC founder and Chairman Nicholas Negroponte said in an eMail interview. The nonprofit is breaking up its operations based on regions for a targeted focus on those deployments. The change was partly triggered by a drop-off in interest in the group’s Give One, Get One (G1G1) program, which was a big source of funding for OLPC. Under the program, a consumer could donate $400 to OLPC for two laptops, with one of them delivered to a child in a developing nation. This program was first launched in 2007 and met with instant success, raking in close to $35 million in sales. However, sales from the consequent program, which lasted from 2008 through earlier this year, dropped tremendously to around $3.5 million. "[This] year G1G1 was less than 10 percent of the previous year. Not good; perhaps in keeping with the economic times," Negroponte said…

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