Give 1 Get 1 Wraps. What is In Store for OLPC in 2008 and at CES…
December 31st, 2007 by Joanna Stern
The stroke of midnight on January 1 won’t only usher in 2008; it will also mark the expiration of the consumer availability of OLPC’s XO laptop. Those wanting to get their hands on an XO during 2008…well they will have eBay.
We plan to continue following OLPC in the next year and will be catching OLPC Founder Nicholas Negroponte’s keynote at CES. But some questions just couldn’t wait until Vegas. We spoke with the OLPC helmsmen about the winding down of the holiday season’s Give 1, Get 1 program. Stay tuned for more on OLPC and our interview with Mr. Negroponte at CES.
LAPTOP: Many people don’t want to see Give 1, Get 1 end. Will a program like this ever be available again?
Nicholas Negroponte: We are exploring two parallel routes. One is doing a Give One or Give Many for diaspora of specific countries — Ethiopia and Iran immediately. The other is doing a Give 1, Get 1 in specific countries: Italy and UK are in discussion. As for in the USA, maybe next Christmas.
L: Why not prolong it since it has been such a hit?
NN: We are a charity and not a business. If we continued it, it would become “sales” versus a charitable promotion.
L: How many laptops have been donated through the G1, G1 program?
NN: It is hard to count, because some people gave many. Birmingham, Alabama ordered 15,000 for its kids, because of G1G1, but I really cannot count those 15,000. The final number will be between 150,000 and 170,000 laptops, without counting the very big ones like Birmingham.
January 7th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
If it would be sales continued into 2008 then it was sales when you opened it up originally and again when you extended it to the end of December. I don’t feel that way about it. Extending a charitable promotion under the same circumstances is an extension of the same charitable promotion. I have three children who are preserving the environment, caring for the poor and disadvantaged, taking water and medical care to undocumented persons crossing the Arizona desert… financial circumstances made it impossible for me to buy them all the charitable donation while the promotion was in effect. I can wait ’til you open another donation window, but I could have done without that eBay crack.