Intel vs. OLPC/AMD: Rivalry heats up with chipmaker’s new wireless and ed initiatives
Intel isn’t just planning to offer the Third World a laptop selling for less than $400.
It also will start a $1B initiative to train teachers and extend wireless access. Here’s more on Intel and education. Plus AP and CNET stories.
About the Intel-designed laptop, AP reports: “It will run Microsoft Corp.’s Windows or the free Linux operating system and offer standard features, including wireless Internet capabilities.”
So how might AMD respond? It’s a partner of the One Laptop Per Child project, whose machines will sell for a fraction of AMD’s. Actually I could well imagine countries dealing with both projects–choosing the less expensive OLPC machine for the more isolated and poorer areas. Intel is talking, by the way, about giving schools 100,000 PCs, far fewer machines than OLPC envisions being bought or donated for Third World governments.
Lesson for the e-book biz: Notice Intel’s focus on foreign markets? Imagine the potential revenue from e-books even if just a tiny fraction of humans are reading them.
Speaking of corporate feuds: Microsoft and Google Set to Wage Arms Race, in the Times.
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