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Intel Won't Give Laptops to Children
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by Jarrett Martineau | January 4, 2008 at 03:58 pm
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Will the One Laptop Per Child dream ever be fully-realized?
Intel Corp (INTC.O: Quote, Profile , Research) said on Thursday it will drop out of the One Laptop Per Child project and resign from the board after the project's board demanded the chipmaker stop supporting other efforts in emerging markets.One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), a nonprofit project run by MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte, aimed to sell $100 laptops to the world's poor children.
But it began selling in October for $200 through a donor program to finance the program's launch.
The OLPC board "had asked Intel to end its support for non-OLPC platforms including the Classmate PC and other systems," Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said. "They wanted us to focus our support exclusively on the OLPC system."
A representative for the OLPC project was not immediately reachable.
Mulloy said Intel decided to drop out after six months of discussion.
Intel last year introduced the Classmate, a laptop for developing markets. It is likely to have other projects this year.
"We've always said there will be many solutions. The most important priority is to serve the need," he said
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (11)
at 16:27 on January 4th, 2008
Ostensibly, the reason that the OLPC project is upset about Intel
making competing products is that competitors reduce the market for the
XO, so they can't reach manufacturing scale and sell it cheaply.
djpiebob has contributed a photo to this story.
at 16:51 on January 4th, 2008
No matter what Intel decides, One Laptop Per Child has brought the need for global education as a means to fight poverty to the forefront of people's minds. Regardless of what chip winds up in the machine, One Laptop Per Child should be commended for forging ahead despite being shrugged off by big corporate America.
darnlucky has contributed a photo to this story.
at 16:55 on January 4th, 2008
Regular participants at saturdayhouse.org in Seattle try out collaboration with their OLPC Laptops, purchased as part of the buy two donate one plan.
Steven_Bradford has contributed a photo to this story.
at 20:43 on January 4th, 2008
I work at Nike and they got one for people to experience. It seems pretty interesting although it crashed on me when i tried to launch the chat application. I will look in more depth as to the real benefit of having one of these for kids... I am a little skeptical to be honest.
eduvauchelle has contributed a photo to this story.
at 21:15 on January 4th, 2008
Children sit on three strips of cloth laid on the floor of a tiny, one-room school in Khairat village, 55 kilometers from Mumbai, India. This school is where the first pilot of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project is being run.
venkylinux has contributed a photo to this story.
at 21:49 on January 4th, 2008
This is a lighthearted shot I took to show a sense of scale. I've been reporting about my XO experience so far on my blog OffLine Online http://www.offlinetshirts.com/blog
Fricka has contributed a photo to this story.
at 22:07 on January 4th, 2008
I'd also like to add that this article is an interesting read on this topic and includes more background information on the split: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/technology/05laptop.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=worldbusiness
at 04:24 on January 5th, 2008
It seems to some people that free access to information technology is the answer to every problem. In my opinion. There are more pressing needs in the third world countries that needs to adressed before handing them a computer and bluetooth capabilities and what have you... Information technology can be a facilitator of development and freedom, but only if a lot of basic needs and geo-political issues are solved first, or else it's meaningless and absurd!!
To be a bit provocative, it can be seen as the the western worlds bad conciousness of not doing enough (euopean goverments subsidizing farming industries and thereby crippling any possibility of third world countries having any real export as one example)
A thorough plan has to be laid out before and frankly i haven't seen any realistic plans regarding how to use those low cost laptops yet!
at 05:41 on January 7th, 2008
at 07:17 on January 7th, 2008
a while ago i have paid £30 for a pentium III (500 mhz) system on ebay.
it is true that this did not include LCD panel, hard disk, or the WINDOWS operating system.
but i do not really understand the hype for this spooky wannabe-laptop.
people can buy a new PC MAINBOARD for less than $100, and it is not impossible to start up with cheap extra components.
the tiny screen is not compatible to real software, and the LINUX is not creating real commercial economy. it is feeding "hobby" purpose open-source projects, maintained by snobs who do not need to make a living from software programming. or by kids in south america!
for me this laptop is similar to wikipedia- once it is there, it becomes a phenomena, people musts live with it, but it is no good.
i do not like NONPROFIT.
try ebay: http://ebay.com for "pentium"
search for desktop computers
Show only: Processor Speed: 700 MHz or more, Memory (RAM): 128 MB or more, Hard Drive Capacity: 20 GB or more, Condition: Usedat 09:52 on January 7th, 2008
And how are those people supposed to get access to ebay in the first place :-)