A Laptop in Every Pot

Not even a seemingly noble cause can distract Intel from the developing-world marketing efforts we wrote about in "Intel's Amazon Ambitions" (February). After long dismissing the efforts of the One Laptop Per Child foundation to give computers to millions of poor children, Intel joined the organization's board and began adapting its microprocessors to the OLPC's needs. After only a few months, however, the pact came to an end when the foundation demanded that Intel stop competing with it and the company refused. "Intel did not deliver on any of the promises it made," says OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte. "We view the children as a mission; Intel views them as a market." For its part, Intel said it continues to believe that the developing world, likely to dominate PC demand in the years ahead, will need computers of many different sorts, including the OLPCs.