OLPC, or the One Laptop per Child program has already given the final green light to the hardware suppliers so that the production of the cheap devices for the world’s poorest children could finally start.

The hardware suppliers have already started the mass production of the XO machines, which have been also known till now as the “$100 laptops”. Although the producers have confirmed that producing one single machine will cost about $176, 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. However, the organization has also mentioned that the first laptops are hoped to be available by the end of October this year.

The One Laptop per Child organization had initially required that over 3 million orders to be received before the mass production of the laptops will be given the green light.

According to OLPC, they will be distributed to children by the governments of participating countries, which include Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Greece, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Rwanda, Tunisia, the U.S. and Uruguay.
The laptops in production are based on the XO Beta-4 (B4) engineering model and before they are released, laptops will go through a final round of testing by developers, hardware experts, OLPC technical volunteers and some of the pilot schools around the world already using the B2 machines.

Last month the project received an expected major boost as Intel withdrew its opposition to the project and, more than that, entered a deal which will now make OLPC and Intel partners, exchanging each other’s technologies. With its long time rival becoming a friend, OLPC has strengthened its powers even more.

The world’s largest laptops manufacturer, the Taiwanese company Quanta, will produce the laptops that will be unique because of their prices, goal, but also because of their energy efficient chargers such as pull-string, foot-pump and solar.

The project is being seen as a good way of helping the world’s poorest children, but as well as a way of making people developing high-tech devices at small prices.