The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) foundation is already working to develop a second version of its XO Laptop computer. Called XO-2, the new laptop aims to integrate  new advances in technology and to further drive down the cost.

Back in 2005, the foundation intended to produce a $100 laptop, but now the real price is $188. As a consequence the foundation said that the XO 2 will aim for an even lower target price of $75.

Another improvement promised by the XO-2 is to reduce the power consummation. The OLPC said that while the first generation XO laptop already requires just one-tenth (2-4 watts versus 20-40 watts) of the electrical power necessary to run a standard laptop, the XO-2 will reduce power consumption even further to 1 watt.

The new Xo-2 will be also smaller than the original version and tt will have approximately  the size of a book. Dual-touch sensitive displays will be used to enhance the e-book experience, with a dual-mode display similar to the current XO laptop.

The design of XO-2 provides a right and left page in vertical format, a hinged laptop in horizontal format, and a flat two-screen wide continuous surface that can be used in tablet mode. 

The dual-touch display is being designed by Pixel Qi, which was founded in early 2008 by Mary Lou Jepsen, former chief technology officer of One Laptop per Children and a leading expert on display technology.

XO-2 will be ready for release in 2010, the OLPC said, with a XO-1.5 to be launched in the spring of 2009.

Currently, 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 Colour mode) helps saving power. It has a built-in wireless network interface and colour camera.

The operating system of XO-1 is Fedora Core, but last week the OLPC and Microsoft announced an agreement to make the Windows operating system available on low-cost XO laptops in emerging markets starting this June. A larger release is carefully planned for August or September.

In January this year, Intel announced its split with OLPC, citing as the main reason the Negroponte’s desire that the chip-making company to stop selling its own low cost computer, The Classmate. The OLPC machine uses a microprocessor from Intel's chief competitor, Advanced Micro Devices.

Last month, Intel unveiled an updated version of its Classmate. This second generation of the Classmate PC comes equipped for wireless Internet access, has a 9-inch LCD screen, six-cell battery, 512MB of memory, 30GB hard disk drive, integrated webcam and it also features a waterproof keyboard. The compatible operating systems are Microsoft’s Windows XP and Linux.