Tempers flared as Intel and One Laptop Per Child representatives traded accusations regarding the end of the chipmaker’s involvement with what was once known as the $100 laptop project.
On Thursday, Intel announced its representative had resigned from the OLPC board, and spokesperson Chuck Mulloy told the Wall Street Journal that the problem was OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte’s demands that Intel stop selling the Classmate PC in developing countries.
On Friday, Negroponte was telling a different story. He told the Journal that he had been ready in November to kick Intel off the board due to Intel’s aggressive marketing of its low-cost Classmate computer, which included disparaging OLPC’s XO.
Intel Tried ‘To Scare’ Officials
After a personal appeal from Paul Otellini, in which Intel’s CEO promised to accelerate development of an Intel-based version of OLPC’s XO laptop and stop its salespeople from criticising the XO, Negroponte relented. But, the New York Times reported, the last straw came when Intel tried to convince Peru, which had agreed to buy 275,000 XO laptops, to change its order to Classmates.
The Intel salesperson tried “to scare us” by claiming the XO power adapters didn’t work, Oscar Becerra Tresierra, general director for educational technology at Peru’s Ministry of Education, told the Journal. “I don’t feel very happy about it,” he said. “We wouldn’t like the project to fail because somebody is spreading gossip about the machines that doesn’t turn out to be true.”
The break-up was probably inevitable, Wayan Vota, editor of OLPC News, suggested in a telephone interview. “When I heard Intel had joined the board of OLPC, I was surprised,” he said. “Negroponte believed he could convince Intel to change its ways. In doing so he forgot Intel is a very competitive chip seller.”
‘Wake-Up Call’ for OLPC
Intel wants to sell chips on every platform, said Vota….