Comments on: Intel Leaves OLPC Hanging

By: Yousuf

Yousuf — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 22:32:04 +0000

I am surprised that Intel and OLPC lasted together this long. According to other stories, Intel used its position in the OLPC board simply as a sales pitch for its own laptop. It would go into a meeting and tell them, “the OLPC is unsuitable for your country, because …, and we should know because we sit on the OLPC board of directors”. I don’t think Intel ever had any intention of helping OLPC, it just wanted to get insider information on the project so that they can better compete against it. It’s a bit like McDonald’s sitting on the board of the World Food Program so that it can setup McDonald’s restaurants in a starvation area. Except McDonald’s wouldn’t be so evil, but apparently Intel is.

By: Christina Warren

Christina Warren — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 12:11:33 +0000

I dunno, Intel is hardly an angelic company (AMD isn’t either for that matter), but something about the OLPC project has always had a funny smell to it. I remember first reading about the project (Fortune Magazine, the first December ‘05 issue IIRC) and having high hopes for its potential, but Negroponte appears to have been a better salesman to first-world journalists than to developing countries, and that is one of the major reasons this project has failed to take off. But even the countries that are buying them don’t necessarily have the infrastructure set-up to support the units – and Negroponte still hasn’t even remotely addressed those concerns – which makes it hard for me to take him seriously.

Plus, I remember back at the very beginning of the OLPC pitch (before the product existed, and again, I’m paraphrasing from that same Fortune piece), that Negroponte talked about selling a higher-end version to western markets to help subsidize the third-world version. Basically, the EEE. Instead of pursuing that, they scarped that plan for this really unattractive “get one, give one” campaign to try to make up for the fact that they still can’t get costs to that magic $100 level.

And maybe it’s just me – but I think Intel has a much better chance of reaching that $100 goal than OLPC has of staying in business past next year.

By: Lorenzo

Lorenzo — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 07:25:05 +0000

AMD FTW!

By: x24motox

x24motox — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 07:21:40 +0000

if you compare the prices the asus eee is a better deal i want one

By: Rockforce

Rockforce — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 07:21:27 +0000

That seems ridiculous to me. When I heard about it my stomach turned. Intel makes enough money as it is. 1000 USD for a quad core cpu would seem to be enough. That OLPC was a fantastic idea and intel did a big dent. Hopefully AMD makes it up.

By: PaperClip

PaperClip — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 07:20:27 +0000

I really think that Intel shouldn’t have done this as well…it just seems that it wasn’t a really bright thing for them to do.

By: Vince Bognot

Vince Bognot — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 07:14:35 +0000

I really do not like those LapTops. Those laptops aren’t windows or mac. So there not for me!

By: cb14

cb14 — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 07:11:59 +0000

I read about the whole OLPC thing. There seem like really cool little laptops and for only about $100 there not to bad. I can believe that intel would pull out.

By: Patrik kiss

Patrik kiss — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 06:03:51 +0000

Intel chips in OLPC Machines? Thats kinda of a stupid idea in my opinion, there trying to make it more affordable, I understand where they are coming from but still use some cheaper chip, wouldnt be worth it.

By: lopagof

lopagof — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 05:49:10 +0000

The eee pcs are great for school/business, for the price you pay you get a bargain

By: CAA1000 (Carol Alfonso)

CAA1000 (Carol Alfonso) — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 05:48:13 +0000

One Laptop Per Child or OLPC is a program developed to support under developed countries that could not support to give out tools for children’s education. I know that OLPC can do way better without Intel. Even Bill & Melinda Gates has helped the project’s funding, but Intel wants to profit from it. Not fair in my opinion!

By: mchitwn

mchitwn — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 05:47:07 +0000

Quite simply, Negroponte wanted Intel to stop selling its Classmate laptop in regions where he was trying to sell the XO laptop.

But the move sort of reminds me of NBC’s Jeff Zucker, demanding a cut of iPod revenue in return for selling NBC shows through iTunes at Apple’s pricing terms. Did the OLPC really think Intel would stop supplying other companies with low-cost chips simply because it asked? It would be sort of like if Dell asked Intel to stop selling HP and Apple Core 2 Duo chips, simply because Dell thought its latest XPS laptop was a more righteous product.

By: Darththomas

Darththomas — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 04:57:46 +0000

Intel has no heart :(

By: Tyler Keim

Tyler Keim — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 04:48:09 +0000

I think that most of the big companies care nothing about they people and are all for the money. Why would you not want to help out a good cause Intel?

By: Jade_GL

Jade_GL — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 04:36:55 +0000

I thought the OLPC was a great idea when I first heard about it. The computer looked to be a well-made piece of hardware with usable programs for kids. I really like hearing about programs like this and if I had the money to drop on the OLPC, I probably would have during this holiday season.

It kind of stinks that they are pulling out of the OLPC program. I wish that companies and organizations could work these kind of things out for the benefit of all, but that’s not what happens when money gets in the way. However, I am not placing any kind of blame, I don’t know enough about it at this point to do so.

And the EEE PC looks awesome. I saw some online reviews and it looks like it’s just my style, since all I do on a pc is read stuff online, do email, and some other basic stuff.