Intel sticks with its Classmate PC, quits OLPC project

US computer chipmaker Intel Corp. on Thursday announced its intention to split from the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) non-profit project that aims to provide an innovative portable computer to poor children around the world, citing disagreements with the organization, headed by Nicholas Negroponte.

Expressly designed for the world's poorest children living in the most remote environments, One Laptop per Child is a potent learning tool created collaboratively by experts from both academia and industry. The goal of the OLPC project is to create a durable, power-efficient notebook PC that is cheap enough for developing nations to use as a common classroom tool.

Despite their individual approaches towards this project have been different in the recent past, One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Association and the Santa Clara-based Intel in July had agreed to come together to give fruition to their common goal of providing a laptop for every child.

In recent times, the companies have visualized their products competing with each other, and have adopted harsh attitudes toward one another in the push for popularity. The OLPC project is aimed at enhancing the child's experience and extending its personal development beyond the classroom, using an open-source technology. On the other hand, Intel’s Classmate PC is designed to focus on the student and the classroom.

While OLPC’s laptop XO aims at enabling the individual child and is directed towards teaching children to use technology in innovative ways, Intel has designed its Classmate PC for students in a classroom environment and is being pitched as a “learning-assistant”.

OLPC's XO laptop offers a new Linux-based software platform with features like a built-in video camera, high-resolution dual-mode screen, and a longer battery life, which it aims to sell for $100 to the world's poor children. The Classmate PC, on the other hand, has a powerful processor, the hallmark of anything Intel, supports unmodified Windows and Linux software, and costs about $250.

Ending its long-simmering altercation with the non-profit project, the world's largest chipmaker yesterday announced it will quit the One Laptop Per Child project and resign from the project’s board after the board demanded the chipmaker stop supporting other efforts in emerging markets.

"It is basically a philosophical impasse and, as a consequence, we’ve decided to go our separate ways," said Intel Asia-Pacific spokesman Nick Jacobs. "Despite many months of work to align Intel and OLPC, fundamental differences remain in our respective approaches to the challenge of bringing technology into education.”

"Intel remains a strong supporter of OLPC’s philanthropic goals, but we were unable to agree to some of their requests ... most notably that we cease support for non-OLPC platforms including the Classmate PC," Jacobs continued.

Founded by Nicholas Negroponte in 2005, the One Laptop program’s original concept was to offer a "$100 laptop," but in September the foundation has raised the price of green-and-white low-power "XO" computer, now costing $188. The new price means the laptops will now cost almost twice what Negroponte, the founder of the foundation who also was former Media Lab director at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had envisioned initially.

Shares of Intel dipped 68 cents to $24.67 at 4 p.m. in NASDAQ Stock Market trading.