The MIT-engineered One Laptop Per Child computer that was widely praised for costing just a hundred bucks now costs almost twice that, according to the non-profit group in an announcement last Friday.

The OLPC laptop is meant for international release for schoolchildren in depressed and developing countries, in a noble effort to improve education. Among its benefits, aside from the low cost, is low power consumption, built-in wifi, a display readable even in bright sunlight and a mechanism to charge it by hand via a crank. Initial customer-countries are Brazil, Libya, Thailand and Uruguay.

From $100, the price has crept up to $130, then $148, then $176, and now stands at $188, and there is no end in sight yet for the computer being manufactured by Quanta Computer Inc. of Taiwan. Spokesman George Snell of OLPC says that rising component costs and currency fluctuations are driving the costs up, but says the group will try to not let it get past $190. For now they have a buffer of $2.

It was too good to be true anyway. Let’s all continue to pray for the project’s success.