The Wall Street Journal-20080117-Wait Just a Minute -- Intel Isn-t the Bad Guy Here
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Wait Just a Minute -- Intel Isn't the Bad Guy Here
Opportunism and a disregard for the facts are both on display in Walter Bender's letter about our rift with his One Laptop Per Child Association ("Intel Is on the Outside of One Laptop Project," Letters, Jan. 11). Intel ultimately resigned from OLPC because OLPC's chairman, Nicholas Negroponte, demanded we stop selling our low-cost Classmate PC, a demand he described in a Journal interview published Nov. 24. Mr. Bender's letter attributes OLPC's dispute with Intel to "unfair competition." Mr. Negroponte had railed that Intel was "using marketing materials that claim the Intel machine is superior," among other charges.
Yet as a member of OLPC, however briefly, we did our best to work with the organization. Last summer, Intel signed a contract with OLPC that allowed us to continue selling the Classmate PC in emerging markets. We provided OLPC with $6 million in funding. We were in the process of porting our software to OLPC's laptop and working on an Intel processor-based version of it. Intel had honored the contractual commitment we made to OLPC. However, OLPC decided the Classmate PC was causing OLPC less success and threatened to throw us off its board unless we killed it. Intel could not and would not withdraw support to the governments and small-computer manufacturers in developing countries who are buying and building the Classmate PC, which is also part of a comprehensive approach to teaching, including customized software for teachers and students.
In the last 10 years we have donated $1 billion for education, establishing computer clubhouses for kids in disadvantaged areas and providing training at no cost for nearly five million teachers world- wide on how to teach better through technology and Internet-based learning. This is a mission we believe in passionately and one that we believe takes more than any single organization to achieve. Mr. Negroponte appears to believe his organization alone can achieve it.
In his letter, Mr. Bender uses, for the first time in a long dispute, the term "unfair competition." There is no evidence of this. In fact, had we asked our customers to stop selling the Classmate PC, it would have reduced the choices available to schools world-wide. These are the facts. It is unfortunate we and OLPC couldn't find a way to work together.
Bruce Sewell
Senior Vice President
and General Counsel
Intel Corp.
Santa Clara, Calif.
