Slashdot Mirror
Why Intel and OLPC Parted Ways
runamock writes "The New York Times has an article that sheds some light on why Intel left the OLPC board: 'A frail partnership between Intel and the One Laptop Per Child educational computing group was undone last month in part by an Intel saleswoman: She tried to persuade a Peruvian official to drop the country's commitment to buy a quarter-million of the organization's laptops in favor of Intel PCs. Intel and the group had a rocky relationship from the start in their short-lived effort to get inexpensive laptops into the hands of the world's poorest children. But the saleswoman's tactic was the final straw for Nicholas Negroponte.'"
I'm sure Intel is going to get lots of hate posts here. And most of that will be because a lot of people fail to see one important issue.
Intel is a for-profit corporation beholden to its stock holders...no profit, stock holders get pissed, executives get thrown out. OLPC is a non-profit that doesn't have to worry about making money, and in fact can lose money as needed...no one is looking for a profit.
The first reply I saw here made a comment about Intel throwing away good will by not selling OLPC chips at a big discount. Here's a news flash for you people...stock holders mostly don't give squat about good will. Good will does not increase the bottom line of their stock portfolio or give them a fat dividend check.
Intel is not a charity. AMD can work with OLPC because AMD is in second place and is willing to do anything to *be* Intel. Likewise, Negroponte (I've gotta put that guy's name in my spell checker), while his goals are commendable and I really do hope OLPC succeeds, is not being realistic as far as the business side of it goes in regards to Intel.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
"Um... that sounds a bit spun doesn't it?"
Maybe in favour of Intel? A more accurate headline, but one that could be construed as inflammatory would be:
Intel attempts to subvert efforts to get computers to children.
"the Intel machines it's trying to sell will still go to the same target audience as the OLPC units"
For about twice the price. Which means half the number of units.
"it's not like they suddenly hate kids!"
Well, no. They just dont like kids quite as much as they like money.
I don't particularly dislike Intel, but in this case I must say I find their behaviour offensive. This will go on their permanent record and get weighed in for future purchases.
"I'd love to see other devices like the EEE PC tailored towards developing nations in the near future."
In the long run, paving the ground for this device class is without a doubt the greatest contribution of the OLPC project.
In my experience, there are tons of people in the business world like Mr. Negroponte. We don't hear about them for two reasons. First, they tend to be small business owners. Second, they tend not to do heinous things. The news goes for interesting stories, which excludes the small fry doing something nice for someone else.
if you had seen and used the XO, you might be more understanding. The XO is not a threat to Intel since it is designed for primary school kids and can only help grow that market for Intel's more powerful chips BEYOND primary school. What stunned me about this article as that Peru had already decided the XO was the best device for primary school kids and asked Intel to bid on the secondary school kids device. You know, once the primary age XO users move on into secondary school, they'll need a bit more powerful( CPU, memory, etc ) device. But instead of looking at the XO as a way to start their market growth and be happy with the secondary and beyond markets, the Intel saleswoman aggressively went for what wasn't even asked for, she tried to bid on the already made primary deal.
So even after a few instructions to Intel Classmate PC sales executives telling them to tone down the competition with the XO, a high ranking salesperson does just that? What kind of money is Microsoft putting behind this in commission fees to push someone to go so far out of her way to try and lose one contract in hopes of killing off an XO contract already made?
Oh, you probably don't know that Microsoft is behind the Classmate PC and yes, Bill Gates has stated many times to the public and press that he thinks the XO is a terrible idea and device. Microsoft and Intel quickly through the Classmate PC out there and claimed it was a comparable product. So I would not doubt that there is probably 100's of thousands of dollars in commission behind a Classmate PC win over an XO client.
I also hope the press and public roasts Intel for being such assholes with a non-profit organization. Business or no business, attacking non-profits can cause major brand recognition issues. When "Intel Inside" becomes a black/blue eye on a childs face, they'll think twice about this Classmate PC thing. And I hope someone gets fired for this because for one, she screwed over Intel's shareholders by losing the deal she was supposed to be bidding on.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
The G1G1 program raised 33 million which implies around 150,000 laptops ordered. Quanta won;t be able to supply them all until the end of January.
The production lines are not sitting idle at all.