The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project head Nicholas Negroponte has announced the the OLPC laptops have had a price increase and may not start actual production until October.

The OLPC machines were previously touted for the very inexpensive price of $100 each, but now Negroponte is saying that the price of the machines may be as much as $175 each due to increased prices in materials, including nickel in particular.

The actual production of the OLPC laptops may be delayed, as well. In order for production to begin orders of around 3 million laptops must be in place, and despite interest from multiple countries an order of 1 million back in February, they are still not quite to their goal in order for Quanta to begin production. Quanta Computer out of Taiwan has agreed to assembly the OLPC laptops for the non-profit company for a fee of only $3 each, which is less than it generally charges for laptop assembly.

By the time production roles around, these laptops may also be able to run a version of Windows - quite possibly the recently announced ‘Innovation Suite’.