Last month an Intel saleswoman tried to persuade a Peruvian official to drop the country’s commitment to buy a quarter-million of the One Laptop Per Child's laptops and, instead buy Intel PCs.
Intel and the OLPC haven't really ever had a smooth partnership, but this incident was apparently the last straw for Nicholas Negroponte (OLPC's founder). He demanded that Intel stop selling their rival computer in what he sees as an effort to undermine OPLC's sales.
So what happened? Intel withdrew it's support for the organization.
OLPC has been kind of a controversial issue from the beginning and some the most powerful software and chip-making companies -Microsoft and Intel- have been resisting getting involved because it could be a strong competitor in a market that they were hoping to develop. This is why OPLC contains chips from AMD and runs a cutesy, bare-bones operating system.
Anyway, bravo to Intel. I can't wait to see how they deal with this PR nightmare. For the record, my title almost read "Intel hates foreign children."
Sensationalized ideas aside, this is a rather selfish move for the chip-making giant. There's still other markets out there.
Money Times
Intel withdraws from laptop charity after row
New York Times
Intel Leaves Group Backing Education PCs
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