The officials behind the OLPC project revealed just days ago that the new price of their device has increased to $188. Earlier this year the OLPC officials confirmed that producing one single machine will cost about $176. Though, the One Laptop per Child group has said that it hopes to reach economies of scale for reducing the cost of the machines to the countries that will then be able to purchase them down to the $100 level.

Now, the OLPC has launched a new campaign which will allow US residents to purchase two laptops for $399, one of which will be given away. The "give one, get one" scheme will thus see one laptop shipped out to a child in the developing world for free, while another will be shipped to the buyer. The scheme, dubbed G1G1, will only run for two weeks starting Nov. 12.

The project's founder, Nicholas Negroponte, recently told the New York Times: "I have to some degree underestimated the difference between shaking the hand of a head of state and having a check written. And yes, it has been a disappointment."

Cambodia, Afghanistan, Rwanda and Haiti will be the first countries to receive the free laptops under the G1G1 scheme. The laptops will go on sale for two weeks starting on Nov. 12 through the xogiving.org website. The customers will receive their laptops either late 2007 or during the first quarter of 2008.

On last Friday OLPC’s Spokesman George Snell blamed the increase on a variety of factors, including currency fluctuations and rising costs of such components as nickel and silicon. According to AP, Snell said the foundation behind the project was committed to keeping the price from rising above $190.

The "100$ notebook" or OLPC XO-1 is produced by Quanta Computers, who has a 33% market share of laptops world-wide. It contains an AMD LX-Geode CPU at 700 MHz and 256 MB of RAM. There is no hard disk, but a 1 GB flash memory. A dual-mode SVGA LCD screen (monochrome and color mode) helps saving power. It has a built-in wireless network interface and color camera. The XO has no moving parts, can be powered by solar, foot-pump or pull-string powered chargers and is housed in a waterproof case. The laptop is sold only in batches of 250,000 units to governments.

In July  OLPC announced they have succeeded yet to get the 3 million orders for OLPC that were needed to get production started and the OLPC is ready for mass production. OLPC said there are at least seven countries (Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand, and Uruguay) that have expressed interest in purchasing these laptops.

During the same month the project received a major boost as Intel withdrew its opposition to the project and, more than that, entered a deal with OLPC, exchanging each other’s technologies. Intel’s decision was considered as a major win for OLPC’s initiative, because the chip maker has promoted its own version of a cheap notebook, called Classmate 200.

In August, Quanta Computer announced it has completed a manufacturing run of 300 units to test the production process. The shipping of the first OLPC notebooks is expected later this month or in early October.