Foremski's Take: Intel Pulls Out of One Laptop Per Child Project
By Tom Foremski - January 4, 2008
According to Intel, [Nick] Negroponte asked the chipmaker to stop selling its Classmate PC while it was part of the OLPC [one laptop per child], which is currently shipping its XO laptop based on a chip from AMD. The Classmate PC was one of the sources of friction between Negroponte and Intel before they joined forces in July. Negroponte went on 60 Minutes in May and accused Intel of dumping Classmate PCs below cost in order to keep OLPCs out of the hands of needy children.
From CNET: Intel leaves the OLPC after dispute - By Tom Krazit
Foremski's Take: MIT's Mr Negroponte is making a classic mistake of identifying with the hardware instead of with the noble concept of bridging the global digital divide and bringing computing to students in the developing world. If he left it to Intel and the others to figure out the hardware and he concentrated on the evangelizing, which is his strength, the project would progress much faster.
Intel "dumping" laptops is a good thing, it provides low cost laptops. Using Intel and Asus, and others to design and manufacture the motherboards, etc, is a good thing. Create a common set of specs for a OLPC and let the massive PC industry compete and produce the laptops.
You'll get a much better price and you will have several giants helping with the promotion and distribution. Otherwise you have to deal with the difficulty of design, manufacture, and distribution which require economies of scale to be marginally profitable and sustainable.
(Intel is one of the sponsors of Silicon Valley Watcher.)
Technorati Tags: OLPC
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Comments (1)
Except that the OLPC comes with positive 'baggage' that's outside of the competitive equation (notably the insistence on open source and a top-to-bottom learning experience) but still theoretically beneficial for the target market (albeit this is rather paternalistic or even patronising).
These extra aspects don't come with the Asus, but won't tip the balance to the ineducated, for whom short term, upfront affordability is likely to be the main motivator - the OLPC could be forsaken, and thusly could the independence and learning opportunities, long term.
Competition is only necessarily a good thing for the consumer in a fair and perfectly rational market! Otherwise, it could potentially lead to consumers neglecting a product that is overall superior, because their decision is not perfectly rational
Posted: January 5, 2008 5:16 PM