Laptop Project Wants To Make Up With Intel

The head of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project said that Intel would be welcomed back if the chip maker returns to the group. The statement came a few days after Intel announced last week that it would be leaving the project.

Intel quit the OLPC group's board of directors last week over what it said was OLPC's insistence that it walk out of a rival low-cost laptop, the Classmate PC which is being developed by Intel. An Intel spokesman had said in last week’s interview that “OLPC has asked Intel to end our support for non-OLPC platforms, including the Classmate PC.”

On the contrary, OLPC claims that it asked no such thing of Intel, and that it welcomes the Classmate PC because the more low-cost laptops there are available, the more likely they'll get into the hands of children in the developing world.

The collaboration of Intel and OLPC has been highly controversial from the very beginning, as both the companies came from highly criticizing each other’s actions to joining forces for a common good. Even if the two groups reconcile, what remains to be seen is how they will make the two projects, One Laptop Per Child and Classmate PC, co-exist.

The chairman of OLPC, Nicholas Negroponte, said in an interview, "It was very unfortunate what happened with Intel and I hope there's a way of rebuilding it in the future because there's no interest in OLPC pushing Intel out. It just is not in our interest. Our goal is to get this to as many children as possible."

Negroponte added, “The picture that painted was one of OLPC being anti-competition, which is ridiculous. We’d like to see as many laptops out there as possible and kids have the widest choice possible.”

The OLPC Project aims to manufacture laptops costing just $100 so that kids in the developing world can be exposed to computers. The higher costs of PCs is keeping many people in developing countries away from learning how the software, Internet, and communications work, and understanding the benefits of computing, which can improve their economies, job prospects, and lives.

The laptop made by the group, the XO, is estimated to cost nearly double the projected amount. The project is being led by academics and researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The organizers of the effort predict that heavy volume sales of the laptop will drive down its cost.

With OLPC stating that it doesn’t want to undermine Intel’s efforts any longer, and denying it ever did, there might be a chance for future collaboration, although Intel is not that optimistic about it.

Agnes Kwan, a manager with Intel, expressed that Intel is willing to talk to OLPC. But she added that the organizational break-up came about because of differences that the groups have been so far unable to resolve.