Negroponte: Intel trying to put OLPC out of business

Nicholas Negroponte, the visionary behind the One Laptop Per Child initiative (OLPC), has lashed out at Intel for trying to undermine his dream of creating a low-cost computer for poor children. And he has Intel marketing documents that he says prove his allegations.

At the heart of the OLPC vision, is the XO-1, a low cost laptop that is rugged, extremely energy efficient (it can be powered using a built-in wind-up generator), supports mesh wireless networking, and uses open source software. The XO-1 will feature a 433 MHz AMD Geode processor, 256 MB of RAM and 1 GB of Flash memory for long-term storage. OLPC hopes to be able to sell the computers to second and third world governments for US$100 by 2008, though at the moment the price is said to be around US$135 to $175.

At a recent lecture at MIT, Negroponte accused Intel of approaching the same governments that he’s been approaching and offering it’s own low-cost laptop, the Classmate, at below cost.

The XO-1 was to originally going to be powered by an Intel processor. When Intel was dropped from the OLPC design specification, Intel started its own laptop-for-poor-kids program, the World Ahead Program, and developed the Classmate reference design.

With a price of around US$400, the Classmate, like the XO-1, is a low-cost laptop designed to be sold to second and third world governments. The Classmate features a 7 inch screen, Celeron M Mobile Processor, 256 MB of RAM, and 2 GB of Flash memory for storage.

“Intel should be ashamed of itself, It’s just – it’s just shameless … Intel has hurt the mission enormously,” Negroponte told 60 Minutes.

Negroponte believes Intel is trying to run him out of business because of the large numbers involves (there are a lot of poor kids in the world).

“They look at those numbers and they say, ‘if we’re not in those, we’re toast’,” he said. 

Negroponte has managed to obtain Intel marketing material that was sent to the government of Nigeria. The documents show the shortcomings of OLPC, while highlighting the benefits of the Classmate.

Intel dismisses Negroponte’s claims.

“We’re not trying to drive him out of business,” said Craig Barrett, Intel’s Chairman of the Board in an interview with 60 Minutes.  

“We’re trying to bring capability to young people. And it’s more than just Intel. It’s going to take the whole industry to do this.”

In order to be able to start production of the XO-1, Negroponte needs 3 million orders. So far he has no confirmed orders.

Obviously, if Negroponte’s claims are true, Intel’s aggressive entry into this “market” may jeopardize the OLPC vision, and leave the low-cost laptop market to Intel and its partners.

So you might ask, what’s wrong with this? Why not let the market supply the demand for low-cost laptops.

The problem with this approach in this instance is that Intel would never have entered this market were it not for OLPC. If Negroponte’s allegations are true, Intel appears to be using its financial clout to give its commercial product an unfair advantage over a not-for-profit product. With the OLPC gone, the downward pressure on price would also be gone, and so would the dream of a laptop for every child.

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