IXL Social Enterprise Case Studies Education March 2010 | Page 6

One Laptop per Child: Taking the Next Step to Realizing Nicholas Negroponte’s Vision

Existing and Potential Competitors
The XO was instrumental in jumpstarting the netbook market. However, while smaller and cheaper
than laptops, most netbooks are unable to stand
the physical abuse they would receive from pupils
and the generally harsh environments in developing country classrooms; therefore, they have not
emerged as true competitors.

But there are some direct competitors. One important one came from Intel, which had its own
alternative to the XO, the Intel Classmate, launched
in May 2006. [See Exhibits 3a and 3b for comparisons of the XO and Classmate.]
In addition, there were many other devices that possessed characteristics similar to those of the XO. Cell
phones, although small, could connect to the internet
just as easily as laptops and could be even cheaper.

Exhibit 3a: XO and the Classmate – Sales and Distribution
XO
By the end of 2009, small XO deployments have been
made to between 20 and 30 countries; large orders
have come from only Uruguay, Rwanda, and Peru.
About 1.1 million have been sold, with a backlog of
around 500,000.
Price: around $200.

Classmate
Classmates PCs are available worldwide, but have
been adopted most in the Europe and Latin America,
particularly in Portugal and Venezuela.
There are about 2 million Classmates that are in
circulation worldwide.
Price: around $400.

Exhibit 3b: Comparison of Some Features – XO and Classmate 2009
Comparison between Classmate PC by Intel and OLPC XO 1.5

3rd Gen. Classmate PC by Intel

OLPC XO-1.5

Processor

Intel® Atom™ Processor N270 at 1.6GHz

Via C7-M (1 GHz) ULV CPU

Display

8.9” 1024 x 600 touch screen, Convertible:

7-1/2 inch dual-mode LCD, supporting a resolution

traditional or touch-optimized tablet mode

of 1200x900 in monochrome mode and 800x600 in
color mode

Memory

1 GB / 512MB DDR2 256M (Linux only) or

1 GByte DDR2 SDRAM system memory

512M SO-DIMM
Storage

16G/8G/4G Flash or 1.8” HDD

4 GBytes of NAND Flash memory on motherboard,
1 MByte of serial Flash memory provided separately
for firmware
Expandable through a single externally accessible
SD/MMC memory card socket

Operating System

Windows or Linux

Linux, Windows, Sugar interface

Weight

1.25-1.49 kg

1.45-1.58 kg

(2.8 - 3.3 pounds)

(3.2 - 3.5 pounds)

Integrated color video camera

Integrated color video camera

640x480 resolution

640x480 resolution

Full frame rate (30fps)

Full frame rate (30fps)

10/100M Ethernet WLAN 802.11b/g/n WLAN

Integrated IEEE 802.11/b/g (2.4 GHz) wireless

with antenna, fMesh support (Linux only), Security:

networking interface

WPA, WPA-PSK, WPA2, WPA2-PSK

Ad-hoc and AP mode networking supported

Camera

Network

Capable of network operation when CPU is
powered down
Water-resistant keyboard,

Water and dust proof 80+ key rubber keyboard, with

Touch pad (integrated vertical scrolling)

Keyboard

1mm stroke
Capacitive touchpad used for pointing device
Directional pad, games buttons integrated into the
screen bezel; rubber-membrane keyboard; touchpad

pen device

supporting stylus input

6-cell battery (6 hours) or 4-cell battery (4 hours),

Nickel-metal hydride, supporting between 6 and 20

based on 8.9” LCD and defined brightness, WiFi

Battery

Built-in water resistant keyboard and touchpad,
speakers and microphone; an optional wireless

Other features

hours operating

off, and camera disabled.

Sources: Jack Schofield, “OLPC X)-2 cancelled: tablet will be developed next,” Guardian Technology Blog, November 4,
2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/nov/04/olpc-negroponte-tablet-ebook, accessed March 9, 2010 and
Scott Ferguson, “Intel Classmate Now Offers Atom N450 Chip, E-Reader Features,” eWeek.com, http://www.eweek.com/c/a/
Desktops-and-Notebooks/Intel-Classmate-Now-Offers-Atom-N450-Chip-EReader-Features-193935/, accessed March 9, 2010.

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