Designed for use by children in developing countries, the XO laptop has been praised for its innovative hardware features and environmentally friendly design. In the vein of this current laptop, the next-generation XO-2 laptop will be engineered as an educational tool for kids in primary schools, Negroponte said. Due for release in 18 months, it will include software and hardware that differentiate it from traditional netbooks, Negroponte said.

OLPC has said the XO-2 will include a software-based, touch-sensitive keyboard and two touch-screen displays. The new laptop may also likely carry current XO laptop features, including the ability to run on solar power, foot pedal or pull-string, making it useful for situations where power is unreliable or unavailable.

"We feel strongly about the laptop being child- and learning-centric, collaborative, rugged, low-cost, low-power, sunlight-readable," Negroponte said. OLPC shipped 1 million XO laptop units over the past 12 months in 31 countries. The organization faces a backlog of more than 500,000 XO laptop orders, Negroponte said.

The company has already off-loaded to the open-source community the development of Sugar, the Linux-based user interface for the XO laptop.

Beyond deployment and engineering, advocacy will be another area of top focus for OLPC, Negroponte said. OLPC has an annual budget of $10 million from various funding sources.