February 17, 2008 (IDG News Service) Mary Lou Jepsen stirred up a controversy when she left the One Laptop Per Child nonprofit effort in December to start her own for-profit company, Pixel Qi, with the goal to create a $75 laptop using technologies she invented at OLPC. Jepsen's departure as chief technology officer prompted critics to accuse her of taking advantage of OLPC's nonprofit inventions for personal gain, but supporters shot back, saying it was the right time for her to leave a listing ship. OLPC has been afflicted by production delays and rising costs over the years, with the laptop's estimated price rising from $100 to $188. It is now beset by waning orders and competition from commercial vendors like Intel Corp. that threaten to sideline the nonprofit effort. ... Is there a release date for the $75 laptop? It's not that hard. It will take about two years. Realistically, it does need that time because what you have to do first is make the components and then you put them together. At OLPC, it took three years because we had to start with the disbelief, but now people believe. Now cut that down to about two years, it's about reasonable. It's 2010 we're looking at. ... http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9063079&pageNumber=1 -- http://karounos.gr/blog/