Information Society Watch

October 29, 2007, BBC News Service

The government of Uruguay has placed the first official order for the so-called '$100 laptop' (also known as the XO laptop), purchasing an initial 100,000 units with the aim of providing a machine for every school child in the country by 2009. This is a great boost for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organisation, which has faced a number of challenges in the production and distribution process for the machines. Uruguay's order of the laptops is placed by state-run Laboratoria Tecnologico del Uruguay (Latu), which chose the XO laptop after it beat out competitor Intel's Classmate PC in evaluations. Initially, Latu will distribute these laptops and also provide connectivity to about half of the country's 19 regions, and it plans to purchase an additional 300,000 machines to meet its goal to provide ICT resources to all of the country's school children. Rumours of deals to provide other developing countries with the machines have not yet solidified into concrete orders

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