One Laptop Per Child Competition

So, the One Laptop per Child Plan by Nicholas Negroponte at MIT just received the news that Intel was backing out of the deal of working with One Laptop Per Child. Could it be that Intel wasn't going to make the money they hoped by selling a billion inexpensive computers to the poor children of the world through One Laptop Per Child?

This is a sad moment for the plan which began as a means to end poverty by putting inexpensive computers into the hands of the world's poorest children. Now everybody is competing for a piece of the money making pie. There are certainly enough children to go around for many companies to get involved, but doing it for profit, versus not-for-profit certainly makes the story sickeningly greedy looking.

I'm no wiseman on the inside issues of this brief partnership breakup, but at first glance Intel looks pretty sleazy. Read the story at the NY Times, and on the BBC.

Check out a 60 Minutes short interview here: