One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is a non-profit organization that aims to provide low-income children around the world with a laptop. This organization sends low cost (and low battery power) laptops to various schools and communities throughout the globe, and it’s an organization that’s gotten a lot of press lately. In addition to providing laptops, OLPC announced that the organization has created a tablet.

The OLPC XO-3 tablet will debut at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is big news for the organization that makes all of its money from donations. The main goal of OLPC is to provide devices to children in need, but also to make sure that those devices are rugged, stocked with everything children need to learn and progress, and easy to transport. The new tablets are at the forefront of the OLPC demonstration this week at the Las Vegas convention.

The New XO-3 Tablet

OLPC hasn’t officially debuted the tablet yet (at the time of this writing), though some specs have already been released. The new XO-3 tablet will comes with an 8-inch screen and it will be Вј-inch thick. In addition, the tablet should (according to earlier specifications) be waterproof and have a variety of available options. The pricing for each tablet will be around $100, though this amount could be increased if various options are added to the tablet.

While the OLPC tablet is inexpensive and rugged enough for children, this is not the only tablet available with a low price tag (and plenty of options). A few months ago, Aakash (a company in India) released its newest tablet. However, the Aakash tablets are more expensive (though only slightly) than the OLPC variety. It should also be mentioned that OLPC’s main goal is to provide a learning tool for children (not a tablet that’s main purpose is to surf the Internet).

OLPC Tablet Testing

OLPC aims to test the new XO-3 tablets in India, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania within the next few months. These tests will indicate whether or not the new tablets will prove to be helpful for children, and whether or not the various educational programs included in the tablets are working sufficiently. Rumor has it that OLPC has included a reading program in the XO-3 tablet that allows children to effectively improve reading skills.

As mentioned, OLPC will debut the new tablets this week in Las Vegas. From there, the tablets will go into testing mode, and will then be available worldwide shortly thereafter. Since OLPC is a non-profit organization, any money earned by selling the tablets will be put towards the organization for future development and to help with the OLPC mandate. In short, this is a good cause for a number of reasons. If you want to purchase a tablet for your child but you don’t want to spend the money for an iPad, the OLPC tablet proves to be a good option, full of learning choices, and complete with a low price tag.