Scott VanDenPlas

2 months ago, I wrote about Intel’s counteractive response to the One Laptop Per Child program. In the face of the negative press around their actions, and more likely the positive press around the AMD 50 x 15 program (and in turn Negroponte’s project), Intel has taken a step toward collaborating on the OLPC project rather than trying to sink it.

The question is… why? The XO machine runs an AMD Geode processor and is in direct competition to the Intel Classmate. Intel has attempted to subvert the low cost laptop market by offering machines below cost. They have distributed anti-OLPC marketing rhetoric to Negroponte’s target countries. There has been a war of words between the chip maker and the OLPC project founders for at least 12 months.

Intel does support educational programs. They have put nearly a billion of their own dollars into educational initiatives around the world, and it makes them look completely asinine to oppose an innovative approach like OLPC. It is expected of them to support a program like this.

More importantly, Intel has lost this battle, but they do not want to lose the war. The XO is flat out better than the classmate. It has a stronger program, solves the correct problem in an efficient manner, and has a wide base of community support. The market for a cheap laptop is huge, but the profit margins on that market are very thin. The current XO machine and OLPC program only address a small fraction of that market, and evidence suggests that if this program is successful, a laptop made for older students could be in the near future. The XO has a predetermined expiration in a student’s educational lifetime. It is not made for teenagers and adults.

The success of a program like OLPC creates another market for them to expand into. OLPC is sowing the seeds of technology supported educational programs early on in a child’s life and will prove successful with it. What happens when that child goes on to more advanced education without that infrastructure? They are once again put in a compromised educational environment, ripe to be augmented with another cheap laptop solution. If Intel wants to capture this market, a feasibly larger market than the children’s machine market, then they certainly cannot be at odds with the OLPC program.

Intel is making a wise investment in their own future.

Intel graffiti picture by Brooke Novak.