The OLPC's XO-3 planned for 2012 at $75 per unit.

The OLPC’s third incarnation of the $100 laptop, X0-3, will represent another cutting edge amalgamation of technologies, combining display technologies used in Amazon’s Kindle with the multi-touch interactivity of Apple’s iPad and new tough lightweight case plastics to enclose it all.

The MIT Media Lab is expecting to deliver the product to a price point of $75 and some two years ahead of schedule. The operating system is likely to be based on Google’s Android and run an ARM processor.

Google's Android OS on a test tablet.

Nicholas Negroponte, Director of the MIT Media Lab says that in 2011 we can expect to see a version using glass, but that the all plastic version won’t exist until 2012. The product will be hard wearing and be almost “extruded” into being.

A Telecentre in Port Moresby

Papua New Guinea is developing an ICT in education strategy to guide resource allocation and prioritisation in the sector. Squarely focused on international trends, the strategy aims to use ICT to leverage particular national comparative advantages, emphasize energy efficiency and new technologies such as thin-client architecture, virtualisation and flash-based computing. The strategy also elevates the XO-PC to a more permanent position in the school system. A number of consultations have taken place to formulate the strategy and a draft is expected by December 2009. The ICT strategy will offer a summary of international trends in ICT and particularly a summary of how education systems are taking advantage of ICT. The strategy paper will provide a situational analysis and finally will present a tactic for better adoption and utilisation of ICTs in the education sector.