$100 Laptop Price Hits $188

3 million orders, fourth price increase for One Laptop Per Child

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 15, 2007 9:01 PM CDT

Copied

$100 Laptop Price Hits $188 — A student learns how to use a "hundred-dollar" laptop computer given to her days earlier by the One Laptop Per Child project at a public elementary school in Villa Cardal, Uruguay, Wednesday, May 16, 2007. The ambitious nonprofit project was launched in 2005 by the director of the media lab at the... (Associated Press)

The famous but increasingly misnamed “$100 laptop” will actually cost $188—the fourth price increase for the innovative device designed for nonprofit group One Laptop Per Child, reports the AP. While still a bargain, the bump could scare off developing governments fixed on the “fanciful $100-per-child figure,” observers fear.

One Laptop Per Child blamed the hike on a host of factors, including fluctuating exchange rates and rising costs for nickel and silicon. The group said it still had commitments for 3 million of the hand-powered, wireless-enabled machines. Brazil, Libya, Thailand and Uruguay are among the countries hoping to distribute the rugged machines to their children. (More One Laptop Per Child stories.)

Report an error