In January 2005, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Nicholas Negroponte, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-founder of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Foundation, unveiled the idea of a $100 laptop – a device that he believes could bridge the technology divide that currently exists between the over-developed and under-developed nations of the world. With the first mass-production run of 300,000 XO laptops only recently placed with the Taiwan-based manufacturer Quanta, Mr Negroponte’s goal of 150 million users by the end of 2008 looks a long way off. Are the reasons for this technical, commercial or political?
The origins of the OLPC stretch back more than four decades, according to the OLPC website (www.laptop.org), but more recently, established vendors such as Intel and Microsoft appear to have muddied the waters somewhat with competing offerings and propositions. However, Mr Negroponte told the Wall Street Journal: From my point of view, if the world were to have 30 million [laptops made by competitors] in the hands of children at the end of next year, that to me would be a great success. He went on to say that OLPC is not in the computer business, it’s in education.
One of the issues currently affecting the uptake of the innovative XO laptop is the price tag. The original target price of $100 has proved elusive for the OLPC team, with units currently selling for $188. This is only a few dollars less than Intel’s Windows-compatible Classmate PC (which is actually a reference design powered by Intel chips) and the Intel/ASUS Eee PC (priced between $199 and $399).
Indeed, the pricing issue does appear to have caused some problems for the OLPC project, with countries like Nigeria backing away from deals on account of the fact that the computers currently cost more than the $100 first stated. Other countries, such as Libya, Pakistan and Brazil, also appear to be favoring the Intel offering, and with Microsoft now offering Windows XP and the student version of Office for just $3 (yes, that’s three dollars) in developing countries, the outlook for the XO looks a little bleak.
The price of the Intel offering (which is offered in either Microsoft or Linux flavors to suit regional requirements) caused Mr. Negroponte to accuse Intel of selling the Classmate at below cost price just to drive his charity out of business. Given the fact that Intel now has a seat on the board of OLPC, it is quite possible that these comments hit a raw nerve with the world’s largest computer chip manufacturer. However, with an Intel version of the XO now in the offing (the current models use an AMD processor) and a seat on the OLPC board following a multi-million dollar investment, everyone involved in this initiative now appears to be happy again – for the time being.
Source: OpinionWire by Butler Group (www.butlergroup.com)
