Intel Rotten Inside? - The OLPC Nightmare

Computers from the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has to be the coolest notebook in the eyes of smart engineers these days. And OLPC project is as close to the noblest cause around - bringing inexpensive laptops into the hands of the world’s poorest children. Who can argue with that? (see this nice 60 minutes story here)

Now, Intel has decided to break off its existing cooperative agreement with OLPC and compete directly with it. Here is an excerpt from a New York Times report (emphasis mine),

A frail partnership between Intel and the One Laptop Per Child educational computing group was undone last month in part by an Intel saleswoman: She tried to persuade a Peruvian official to drop the country’s commitment to buy a quarter-million of the organization’s laptops in favor of Intel PCs. […]

But the saleswoman’s tactic was the final straw for Nicholas Negroponte, the former Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer researcher and founder of the nonprofit effort.

He demanded that Intel stop what he saw as efforts to undermine the group’s sales, which meant ceasing to sell the rival computer. Intel chose instead to withdraw its support from One Laptop this week.

May be just like British Airways’ “dirty tricks” campaign against Virgin Atlantic Airways. This may well be Intel’s defining moment and beginning of its brand being tarnished forever. The words "Intel Rotten Inside" do seem to rhyme well, who knows if it will stick?

Of course, at the end of the day, the world’s poorest children are the one who will suffer from this Intel induced OLPC Nightmare.

It is well known that Milton Friedman argued in 1970 that “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits“. I wonder Intel’s actions in this case, if we strictly follow Milton’s analysis in the article, will it include the dealings of the total cost of Intel?

I wonder how many millions will Intel have to spend to rebuild its tarnished brand (by advertising, etc.) in the tech community? You see, it is “uncool” to be seen as “evil” in dealing with OLPC in this manner. And the end effect of hiring good engineers to work for Intel? (Think Google’s ease of hiring the best engineers around the world because they are seen as “cool place to work” in comparison to the resources they actually spend in advertising and in hiring these top engineers.)

Ultimately, an Intel that is Rotten Inside may make long term economic sense and make lots of money, but until more solid data are available it just seems that being Rotten Inside has its disadvantages also. Plus, how can Intel Chairman Craig R. Barrett have a clear conscience (an unrelated BBC comedy sketch) knowing the damage he might have done to OLPC?

Read more about this news in Cnet news, Boston Globe, and Forbes.