OLPC did for Netbooks what Raspberry Pi did for Single Board Computers, essentially creating a new & much larger market for devices that existed, but had been priced much higher before either of those entrants had entered the market.
I don't think this upstart will see much success though, as the price point is out of reach for most locals. Refurbishing laptops en masse for less than half the cost would likely get more powerful hardware into the hands of notably more people as compared to buying new hardware from an ODM.
Are you kidding me? First of all, the OLPC did not create the netbook market, capitalism did. Secondly this is a great project because he probably plans on trying to locally source the construction of the laptops.
I don't think this upstart will see much success though, as the price point is out of reach for most locals. Refurbishing laptops en masse for less than half the cost would likely get more powerful hardware into the hands of notably more people as compared to buying new hardware from an ODM.