The One Laptop Per Child project has announced that its XO notebook is now in volume production, ending years of development and testing. The small, developing-world system is being assembled by Quanta in a plant near Shanghai and will see its first production runs heading to students in Mongolia, Uruguay, and other early bidders; individual North Americans participating in the Give 1 Get 1 program will also get their notebooks when they ship in December, the company says. US residents recently received a bonus in the form of free T-Mobile Wi-Fi access.

Originally intended as a $100 system for countries where typical computers are either too expensive or too fragile for the harsh climate, the price of the XO has climbed to $200 as the company both upgraded to a 433MHz AMD Geode processor and dealt with increasingly more expensive parts. Give 1 Get 1 systems will cost $400 when they go on sale between November 12th and the 26th but include a unit for the developing country as well as for the buyer.