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OLPC to Intel: Get lost
2 comments- TAGS:Negroponte, OLPC, One Laptop Per Child
- IT TOPICS:Emerging Technology, Hardware, Mobile & Wireless
Intel's abrupt resignation from the OLPC board this week is an ominous sign for the future of Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop per Child Project.
Intel's marketing clout and economies of scale could have helped the project keep skyrocketing costs for the now $200 laptop under control, as I've mentioned before (One laptop per child: Built for failure)
But control issues appear to be what lead to the divorce.
Negroponte's demand that Intel discontinue its own low-cost laptop forced the chipmaker to make a choice between its own business and its interest in helping OLPC. That was a mistake. Absolute positions seldom lead to the kind of compromise necessary to move forward.
Is there more to it than that? We don't know the full story at this point, but OLPC President Walter Bender Bender said there were other issues with Intel, including "a complete lack of cooperation by Intel on software, learning, etc."
He said, she said not withstanding, the lack of cooperation between the two parties does not bode well for the future success of the XO laptop. OLPC had much more to gain by keeping Intel in the fold than Intel did in joining the project.
The biggest loser in all this, however, will be OLPC's customers in developing countries: The world's economically disadvantaged children. Both Intel and OLPC have let them down.
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