Slashdot Mirror
OLPC CTO Quits to Commercialize OLPC Technology
theodp writes "The One Laptop Per Child project suffered a blow Monday, with CTO Mary Lou Jepsen quitting the nonprofit to start a for-profit company to commercialize technology she invented with OLPC (the first of Jepsen's pending OLPC patents was published by the USPTO on Dec. 13). The OLPC project halted consumer sales of the cheap laptop at the end of December."
Much as I hate to say it, it sounds like that OLPC group didn't consult an attorney to have a proper contract drawn up between all parties. Not that I RTFA or anything.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
IANAL but WWFSMD? TMI! TMI!
IMHO, the OLPC was only a marketing ploy: let everybody know there is a cute little extremely portable weather proof low energy computer that nobody can buy yet, so that everybody will drool (the way I am doing now, imagining myself owning a black XO and being able to read during commute without damaging my eyesight with a PDA) and want to buy it when it goes into production.
... I think what are they doing is just fine, the only complaint is that it takes so damn long for the XO to get to a shop near me. Come on, Negroponte, my wallet is as wet as it can get, and I'd shoot 300 Euros without thinking too much for a black or grey XO anytime you're ready.
Why it was not shipped outside US ? That is called market segmentation: let the secondary market drool a little and envy the primary market, then sell the same product at the highest price the secondary market will bear when you have enough stock. It was done with the game consoles, it is done with movies and music, why not with the OLPC's commercial successor ?
The "buy two, get one" was, imho, just a test, to see how it's going to sell and do some testing with real users.
I hope I did not sound like a anti-capitalist freak