Intel Bails Out on One Laptop Per Child Program
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The chipmaker withdraws after being asked to end support for all non-OLPC platforms. This doesn't square with Intel's plans to build a cheap laptop of its own.
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On again, off again. Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) has canceled a project to create a chip for projection TVs. The announcement perhaps wasn&#39;t much of a surpise.
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Intel is working on an updated version of its&#160;Classmate PC&#160;designed for schoolchildren in developing countries, part of a wider effort to spur demand for low-cost laptops.Based on the company&#39;s&#160;upcoming Silverthorne processor, the new Classmate PC will likely be sleeker and have longer battery life than the current version, according to Navin Shenoy, general manager of Intel&#39;s Asia-Pacific operations.&quot;It&#39;s fair to say that there is a Silverthorne-based Classmate design in the works that would likely come out coincidentally with the microprocessor,&quot; Shenoy said, adding that Intel has not determined pricing for the new laptop design.Silverthorne, which is billed as being easy on both power and the pocketbook, is part of Intel&#39;s Menlow platform that also includes the upcoming Poulsbo chip set. The dual-core chip is scheduled for release during the middle of this year and is central to Intel&#39;s plans for small, handheld computers that Intel calls MIDs, or Mobile Internet Devices, and low-cost laptops, like the Classmate and Asustek&#39;s Eee PC.The current Classmate PC is a big-boned, 1.4 kilogram machine with a 900MHz Celeron M processor and a 7-inch screen. The laptop runs Windows XP and comes with Wi-Fi, 256MB of RAM and 2GB of flash memory in lieu of a hard disk. These specifications won&#39;t send a gamer&#39;s heart racing, but they are enough to get the intended job done.Priced at around $285, the Classmate PC is roughly $100 more expensive than the&#160;One Laptop Per Child Project&#39;s XO laptop, the Classmate&#39;s main competitor. Intel has said volume production would bring down the Classmate&#39;s cost to about $200, but the low-cost laptops have so far grabbed more headlines than sales.Even so, Intel&#39;s Classmate PC development efforts have had a wide impact, largely thanks to the Eee PC, which uses many of the same components but has a thinner, more stylish design.Consumer enthusiasm for the Eee PC largely caught Intel off guard. When the low-cost laptop, which also uses a 900MHz Celeron M processor, was announced at the Computex trade show last year, Intel expected Asustek to announce a $199 laptop for education customers. But the Taiwanese computer maker had other ideas and declared -- to the surprise of Intel executives -- that the Eee PC would instead be marketed to consumers in markets around the world.While the Eee PC&#39;s price tag climbed substantially from the original announced price, at $400 or so the small laptops remain a relative bargain and users have been snapping them up as fast as Asustek can make them.As other computer makers show interest in following Asustek&#39;s lead, Intel has embraced the low-cost laptop as an important product segment for the consumer market, as well as the education market.&quot;We think that there&#39;s going to be a wide variety of multinationals and local OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] who decide to go after this segment,&quot; Shenoy said.
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Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the One Laptop Per Child project, has told news media that OLPC and Microsoft are working on a dual-boot XO laptop, able to run either Linux or Windows.
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Blog: Intel and the One Laptop Per Child Program have ironed out their differences and agreed to collaborate on future projects.
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Intel and the One Laptop Per Child group had a rocky relationship from the start in their short-lived effort to get inexpensive laptops into the hands of the worldâs poorest children.
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InfoWorld - Intel Corp. wants to see its low-cost Classmate PC help transform they way students in developing countries are educated. And the company is not alone. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project also hopes its low-cost XO laptop can close the &quot;digital divide&quot; that exists between the developed world and emerging markets.
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Intel Corp.  said on Friday it  would support a non-profit foundation's project to put  computers in the hands of poor children around the world,  reversing its long-standing opposition to the proposal.
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The One Laptop Per Child organisation sets up a program to deliver laptops to the poorest US children.
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Blog: One Laptop per Child (OLPC) announces final beta version for its $100 XO laptop.
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Europeans interested in the One Laptop Per Child Project&#39;s XO laptop may soon have the chance through a &quot;give one, get one&quot; offer similar to that offered in North America last year.&quot;At some point we might do it in Europe,&quot; said Walter Bender, OLPC&#39;s president, in an interview Friday.Under the &quot;give one, get one&quot; program offered in Canada and the U.S., customers could buy an XO laptop for US$400 and a second XO laptop would be donated to a developing country. Each XO laptop currently costs around $188.OLPC hasn&#39;t yet made the offer available in Europe because the XO has not received the necessary certifications to be sold there. &quot;We haven&#39;t finished all that stuff, so we couldn&#39;t do it in Europe yet,&quot; Bender said.Whether or not OLPC does make the XO available in Europe remains to be determined, and such an offer remains under consideration. &quot;We may or may not do it,&quot; Bender saidFrom OLPC&#39;s perspective, the &quot;give one, get one&quot; offer helped large numbers of people in North America get involved with the group&#39;s efforts to bring computing to children in developing countries, Bender said.&quot;A lot of people [are] jumping in to the software, to learning and to support. ...That&#39;s what I was hoping Intel would do, but they didn&#39;t. The public is doing it instead,&quot; he said, referring to&#160;Intel&#39;s acrimonious departure&#160;last week from OLPC&#39;s board of directors.OLPC has so far shipped around 50,000 XO laptops to North American customers under the &quot;give one, get one&quot; program, and more remain to be shipped, Bender said. The number of customers who ordered laptops under the program was not immediately available, but as many as 150,000 units may have been donated through the program.&#160;
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The world's largest contract laptop maker announces a million orders with the One Laptop Per Child project. In Gadget Lab.
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Nonprofit and chipmaker have faced off over low-cost laptops in the past, but they're coming together to bring PCs to kids.
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(InfoWorld) - Intel has tied with three large Indian PC vendors to assemble the Classmate PC, a PC specially designed for schools. The three vendors -- HCL Infosystems, Wipro, and Zenith ComputersÂ -- will start shipping the product to Indian schools next month. The Classmate PCÂ will be sold only to schools, and not through retail channels to consumers, John McClure, Intel's director for marketing in South Asia said on Monday. The Classmate PC has been specially designed to work in a networked classroom environment, and comes with software and features that give the teacher in the classroom control over the dissemination of content to students' PCs, he said. The Classmate PC, for example, does not have a hard disk. Instead it contains up to 2GB of NAND flash memory. Most of the content will reside on the teacher's PC, McClure said. Intel's manufacturering partners, such as HCL, Wipro, and Zenith, will team with content providers, education services providers, and system integrators to deploy the Classmate PCs in schools. The PC, which can run both Linux and Windows operating systems, is powered by a 900MHz Intel Celeron mobile processor, and comes with Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity, Intel said. It has a 7-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) screen, and an option of 256MB or 512MB of RAM, Intel said. The device weighs less than 1.45 kg and comes with a six-cell lithium-ion battery promising three to four hours use, the company said. The introduction of the Classmate PC follows pilots of the product by Intel in some schools in the country. The price of the product with the control software will be 18,000 Indian Rupees ($450), with the education software and Wi-Fi connectivity available at extra cost. That is a high price by Indian standards, prompting Intel to target the device in the first phase at private schools, rather than government-run schools that typically run on shoe-string budgets. While well-funded private schools may deploy the computers across the school, at some other private schools, it is more likely that the school will introduce the PCs initially in one class, such as the science class, according to McClure. In another rollout scenario, schools may deploy a few in each class, and assign each PC to a group of students, he said. Intel expects some of its partners to offer schools the option to pay for the PCs on a monthly fee per student, McClure said. The Classmate PC is also being rolled out in Nigeria and Brazil, McClure said. Intel plans to introduce new models of the Classmate PC by the end of this year or early next year, targeted at higher education and professional schools like nursing schools, he said. These models may have some modifications in features, including large hard disk drives, to suit the usage models envisaged, McClure said. Intel is not targeting the Classmate PCs at government-run schools in India, both because of their cost, and also because most of these schools are still behind in technology adoption. For these schools, Intel is donating about 10,000 PCs over the next three to five years, and is also training teachers on the use of computers. A number of Intel programs, including one called the Community PC, which offers a shared PC to local communities, aim to bridge the digital divide for this segment of the population, McClure said. Intel announced earlier this month that it hasÂ joined the One Laptop Per ChildÂ (OLPC) initiative. The nonprofit project aims to equip children in developing countries with specially designed low-cost notebooks powered by chips from Intel's rival Advanced Micro DevicesÂ (AMD). In India, however, the OLPC is a nonstarter, with the Indian government deciding not to adopt it because it does not provide for control by teachers, among other reasons.
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Despite previous bad blood between Intel and the One Laptop Per Child program, which opted to include AMD processors in the low-cost computer for developing nations, the leading chip manufacturer will join the non-profit's board of directors and help fund the initiative.
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The One Laptop Per Child Project says it is working with Microsoft to develop an XO laptop for children in developing nations that boots both Linux and Windows XP.
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The head of the One Laptop Per Child effort says Intel could still contribute to the program for developing nations.