The ambitious One Laptop per Child program continues to flounder. OLPC's cornerstone XO laptop, which was widely lauded when it was functionally revealed in 2006, has still failed to reach its original price point of $100. Currently selling for $188 and achieving a narrower distribution than initially intended, the machine has yet again run into problems. Last week, Walter Bender, long the second in command on the project, left the group apparently out of disagreement over a significant internal shift in goals and direction.

Don’t think that you’ll be seeing Intel MPUs inside any OLPC XO laptops anytime soon. In a nutshell, the turbulent marriage between the AMD-driven world educational organization and Intel-driven world chip dominator is over. Intel has lost its seat on the OLPC board and won’t be lending a helping hand towards designing an Intel XO, either. In a statement issued by OLPC founder, Nicholas Negroponte, there are claims of competitive sales of the Intel Classmate PC distracting world buyers and general “trash talking” generated by the Intel sales force at undermining XO leverage in PC-purchasing nations, like Peru.

On a more positive note, OLPC claimed that the “Give One, Get One” sales program had generated over $35 million in sales. That’s a pretty good way to rebound from a failed relationship.—Dave Prochnow

(Image: OLPC)

After six months of operation, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) “XO” laptop has logged its first major success story: Peru. Kids love ‘em, administrators love ‘em, parents love ‘em and Nicholas Negroponte is ecstatic. Loaded with approximately 100 copyright-free books (are you listening Amazon.com?), the XO has become exactly the empowering tool that Negroponte predicted. This success story is not without its minor hiccups, however. Although targeted for 9,000 Peruvian elementary, only about 4,000 of these schools have Internet access. Nonetheless, OLPC is working with Peru to surmount this obstacle.—Dave Prochnow

(Image: laptopgiving.org)

OK, by now you’re probably well aware of Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) foundation and its $100 XO laptop. But the more things change, the more they stay the same. Yes, that one hundred dollar laptop has swelled to a manufacturing cost of approximately $175 per unit. Likewise, the XO laptop that was once chided by Bill Gates for its modest screen, crank-up power supply, and lack of Windows support has now been fully embraced by Gates, with a special version of Windows XP for the XO apparently in the works.

What’s all of this got to do with the rest of us?

Intel and the MIT-led One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative have finally stopped their squabble, and announced plans to work together. The goal of OLPC was to provide impoverished children with specially equipped, low-cost computers. Using chips from Intel rival AMD, OLPC hasn’t cut the cost of the notebooks down to $100, its original goal, but the price tag is dropping. Intel’s own initiative, called Classmate PC, has been shipping notebooks priced at $225 for several months. Intel isn’t exactly the bad guy in the fight; the company spends $100 million a year on education initiatives. But OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte reportedly has said that Intel’s rival laptop program was hurting its own efforts. Now Intel will join OLPC, and the two organizations will work together to get computers into the hands of poor children, so they, too, can learn, grow and watch Internet videos of people doing silly dances.—Gregory Mone