According to tech.blorge.com, the OLPC project is currently facing some difficulties receiving enough orders to begin volume production of the OLPC.Honestly, is this a surprise to anyone? The stated objective was $100, which is proudly proclaimed on their web page. But they have never been able to put together a substantive plant for reaching that goal. Currently, the cost is expected to be closer to $180.Negroponte is trying to get behind a "buy-one-give-one" plan, but at the current cost this plan is absolutely ridiculous. Does he really believe that people will pay $399 for this:

• 433 Mhz AMD Geode CPU
• Color mode ~693x520 resolution (much higher in greyscale)
• 256 MB RAM
• 1024 MB Flash storage
• VGA resolution "webcam"
• Miscellaneous laptop features (3 usb ports, touchpad, wireless)
• Beautiful GUI. Ugh.

Ok, it is a halfway decent toy, but $400?!? Even at $200, this feels too expensive for the market.I think we are going to see this project either severely scaled back or cancelled in 2008. My bet is on a severe scaling back.