Futuristic Next Gen OLPC XO Laptop Revealed

Nicholas Negroponte the founder of One Laptop Per Child Foundation yesterday unveiled the design of their upcoming XO Laptop. Dubbed to be the world’s cheapest laptop ever it is expected to retail about 75$. The designs that were unveiled totally blow the current market, as the design is simply amazing, and looks very user friendly. The only catch is that it will take them till 2010 to bring this design from the artist’s canvas to a real functional device.

The laptop to be called XO-2 will have dual touch screens and to keep the costs low they plan to use the same kind of screens that we find in DVD Players these days. The design showcases a lot of flexibility, for example when held vertically the laptop is more like a book with pages to the left and right, and while it is held horizontally it adds up as a hinged laptop or a tablet computer.

Here’s a excerpt from the official press release :

“The XO-2 laptop will be about half the size of the first generation device and will approximate the size of a book. The new design will make the XO laptop lighter and easier for children to carry with them to and from school or wherever they go. The XO-2 will continue to be in a green and white case and sport the XO logo in a multitude of colors that allow children to personalize the laptop as their own possession.” 

Here are some more images on what the XO-2 will end up looking like. Pretty futuristic and great looking if you’d ask me!!

Since we will all have to wait until 2010 to see this design in the form of a real functional device, I’m holding back my thoughts if this can be a success, because someone else can come and make a better cheaper laptop by then. Apart from that with the launch of iPhone, Touchscreens have evoked mixed responses, a lot of people seem to asking for Tactile feedback. Considering that these laptops will primarily be used by kids, tactile feedback could make quite a difference.

At the moment, XO-2 is the coolest looking laptop in town, yes even better than any of the laptops made by Cupertino based Apple. Fingers Crossed until 2010!! But Nonetheless I want to have one of these even if I don’t live in a third world country..

One last question, why wasn’t Amazon Kindle made into something like this?

Via Gizmodo