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In a bit of disheartening news for fans of the OLPC project, pricing for the unit as it stands has been released and it doesn't look good. The units are now available, en-masse, for the price of $200 each. That $200 tag only applies if the quantity ordered in 10,000 or more, which means smaller volumes might even have a higher cost.

This is the fourth time since its inception that the cost of the machine has risen, and it is still not yet ready for production. Any further rise in price might be a serious detriment to the project, which has gone to great lengths to pitch themselves as a low-cost solution.

Granted, much of this cost can be attributed to the relatively young age of the project and unforeseen costs. However, the article brings out a good point – promising one thing only to deliver another can serious harm the reputation of not only the machine, but of the project behind it. Hopefully this will not set them back too far – or, at the very least, that future iterations production bring down cost to a more reasonable level.