One Laptop Per Child: Vision Versus Reality

Our UC neighbors at Irvine have published a study reviewing the One Laptop Per Child program (
Wikipedia) that gives a $100 PC to children in developing countries. The program received $20 million in startup investments and got a lot of attention. It was projected that 150 million laptops would be shipped annually, but so far only a few hundred thousand have been distributed over the past 2 years.

One major barrier has been the onset of netbooks: $200-$400 laptops.

Another barrier, borrowing from Diffusion of Innovations theory, was the issue of compatability with existing norms. In the case of Peru, the ministry of education adopted the innovation without discussing it with the teachers' union.