The Aftermath: Intel Leaves OLPC Campaign

A few days ago, Intel announced its departure from the One Laptop Per Child campaign after a dispute with founder Nicholas Negroponte. The source of their displeasure? Intel’s other initiative for low-cost computers, called the Classroom PC. I’m quite surprised that so much drama is unfolding in what seems to be the more charitable sector in the industry.

Source: http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2007/05/olpc.jpg

In case you’re still new to this whole situation, OLPC is a campaign with the goal of empowering each and every child with the gift of knowledge. What better way of imparting knowledge than with a computer? The OLPC is $100 per laptop, making it very affordable and replaceable. The Classroom PC on the other hand, is to be used for school purposes only and is fourfold the price of the OLPC although the specifications are a bit more impressive.

Initially, I was quite shocked that OLPC was so demanding of Intel – after all, shouldn’t there be more companies or corporations contributing towards education like themselves? After browsing through some opinion pieces on this whole topic, I realize that from a business standpoint, OLPC was actually quite justified on insisting Intel stop the Classroom PC. If Intel continued with the Classroom PC as well as making models of the OLPC, then there would definitely be a conflict of interest and the charitable competition might be a bit one-sided. As a result, Intel backed out of OLPC instead of the Classroom PC.

Source: http://media.arstechnica.com/news.media/classmatepc.jpg

To me, they seem to be targeting different markets in a way. If Intel doesn’t make the Classroom PC more affordable, OLPC will definitely retain control over the affordable laptop market, although that’s actually besides the point. I think that Intel’s move is a bit selfish in nature, because we really don’t need such a variety when it comes to simply wanting to give kids a laptop to use for finding knowledge – so I can only assume that Intel wants the Classroom PC just for the profit – I know it’s a bit low in saying so, but I can’t see any other reason why Intel would back out of the OLPC project. If this is indeed the reason, they have left OLPC in a darned situation and hopefully another corporation will intervene and carry on the hardware manufacturing.

I think OLPC might be feeling a bit bitter at the moment like HD-DVD with Warner, but I hope that they seek out and find a new partner with someone more determined and reliable – like AMD, perhaps? Just a thought, haha. Either way, I hope that OLPC still is able to carry on without assistance from Intel as it was one of the few corporations I really thought was changing the world.