Intel has pulled out of a project to put cheap laptops (bærbare PCer) in the hands of children in the developing world, BBC online reports Friday.
Citing “philosophical” differences, Intel has withdrawn its funding and technical help from the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. Intel joined the OLPC in July 2007 and was widely expected to work on a version of the projects laptop that used an Intel chip.
The green and white XO machine was designed specifically for children, was made rugged to cope with conditions in developing nations and could be kept powered using a hand crank (drejehåndtag).
Intel spokesman Chuck Molly said it had taken the decision to resign from the OLPC board and end its involvement because the organisation had asked it to stop backing rival low-cost laptops.
The chip maker has been promoting its own cheap laptop, the Classmate, in many of the same places as the OLPC.
OLPC founder Nicholas Negropontes initial aim was for a laptop costing only 100 US dollar (godt 500 DKR), but the final versions that have been trialled in Nigeria and Uruguay cost 188 dollar – nearly the double amount.
Costs were supposed to be kept low by governments ordering the XO laptop in shipments of one million, but large orders for the XO laptop have, so far, not materialised. OLPC said it has launched programmes in Haiti, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Mongolia, and Afghanistan.
