There's money to be made everywhere.

Thank you India, for reiterating what I've been saying all along.

A joke comes to mind about one million more Nigerian scammers getting equipped...

India has allot of people - population of almost a billion (~15% of the planet) - and thus limited resources per person, it makes sense for them to be more careful and do proper planning before jumping into what could possibly be as much a fad as it would be a great educational instrument. Perhaps they'd be wise to let someone else experiment with the concept a bit before they jump in as well.

So I see that the anti-$100-laptop crowd have jumped on India's decision to not use it as justification for their beliefs.

Let's take a look at Nigeria's decision to get a million of these laptops. Clearly something about the laptops appealed to them, and they were a suitable solution to their educational IT needs.

Far more sensible to buy $140 rugged educational laptops than more expensive standard PCs with Microsoft licenses and all that. Given that Nigeria has paid off all its debts (due to oil income), I think the country is actually wary of paying over the top, yet is aware of a need for equipment to aid its education system.

So, shock horror, a product is suitable for one place, and unsuitable for another. Stop the presses!

What's more pressing is the actual software on those laptops. It's not just about the laptop hardware or the operating system. The actual software has to be available, it has to be good, and somehow they've got to fit a wide range of this educational material into the limited flash memory on the device.

I am an Indian but i feel Indian Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee doesnt see a way to earn money for himself in this scheme.

No doubt the Nigerian $100m will be deposited in a 'PayPal escrow' and the mailing code will be...what, 23401? 23402?

Dear Sir: I am have an excellent business proposition for you.....

Maybe we can finally make a segway to selling 100 tacos for 100 dollars.

google define: paedagogically..... ahh. well in many ways the olpc project isn't going to help the extreme poor of the world as much as those who the ability to use the knowledge gained from the laptop.

Great, now the kids can make money offering me cash from their late father the General's estate, and for the small sum of $5000 I can be a meeeeeelionaire!

Next thing you know it'll be cool to be a 419er and 2 years after that they'll offer it at the X Games.

I love the title. Keep up the humour 8)

Well, if 40% of India's 1B people are under 15, and therefore candiates for this, that's $40B for laptops (at $100 each) -- assuming somebody could build 400M of them. Which a rich country could blow on, say a war in Iraq, but isn't the kind of money the Indian government has or could spend in this way (I suppose if they were building them locally it might be a little more tenable). And while I think laptops in the bush isn't as silly as some people believe, you do need some basic infrastructure (both physical and people) to get any benefit out of them. Illiterate people can't use them, for instance, and clean water is always a higher priority. That said, I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the wealthier states within India consider purchasing them on their own.

1 million orders and won't enter production without 5+ million??

Nigeria has a decent electric network infrastructure. I think they could have got a lot better for the money, considering the massive volume!

Wouldn't they get Athlon XP-Ms coupled with 20GB+ HDs for 140$ these days? 1 million units! this may be a cool geek, but I doubt it beats a full fledged laptop for most real life uses.

I'm not against this thing, but the deal looks bad to me, especially for a country that has a decen electric infrastructure for the most part.

I wonder if the nigerian spammers said "100 million dollars!" with a pinky in their mouth?