Lesley Stahl Reports On The Dream And The Difficulties Of Getting A Computer To Every Child
(CBS)
"Because the numbers are so large," Negroponte says. "They look at those numbers and they say, 'if we’re not in those, we’re toast'."
In Brazil there are 55 million schoolchildren, most of them poor, many live in favelas, or shanty towns. In China there are 200 million children. Worldwide Nicholas Negroponte says the potential number of kids who could get laptops is over a billion, a fact which has not gone unnoticed by Intel and other hi-tech companies.
Intel gave every student in this class in Mexico a Classmate – which Negroponte believes is part of an effort to kill him off.
At a recent lecture at MIT he accused Intel of dumping, of going to the same governments he’s trying to sell to and offering the Classmate below cost.
"Intel should be ashamed of itself," Negroponte says. "It’s just – it’s just shameless."
"Negroponte believes that you’re trying to drive him out," Stahl told Craig Barrett, Intel’s Chairman of the Board.
"We’re not trying to drive him out of business. We’re trying to bring capability to young people," Barrett responds. "And it’s more than just Intel. It’s going to take the whole industry to do this."
Barrett flies around the world bringing computers to schools in places like Malinalco, Mexico.
He says that like Negroponte, Intel just wants to help kids get affordable computers. And that they would be willing to reach an accommodation with One Laptop.
"There are lots of opportunities for us to work together," Barrett says. "That’s why when you say this is competition, we’re tying to drive him out of business: this is crazy."
Not to Negroponte who says the rivalry goes back to when he first introduced the One Laptop and Barrett dismissed it as “a gadget.” That infuriated Negroponte, who says the heart of it is that the One Laptop uses chips made by AMD, Intel’s biggest competitor.
"Intel and AMD fight viciously," Negroponte says." And we’re just sort of caught in the middle."
To prove that Intel has targeted his machine, Negroponte gave us some documents Intel sent to the government of Nigeria.
When Stahl shows those documents to Barrett, he says, "This is an Intel marketing document – there’s no question about that."
One document outlines the “shortcomings of the One Laptop Per Child approach” and lists the supposedly stronger points of the Classmate.
"So somebody at Intel sees this as direct competition, clearly," Stahl says to the Intel chairman.
"Well, someone at Intel was comparing the Classmate pc with another device being offered in the marketplace," Barrett responds. "That’s the way our business works."
For Nicholas Negroponte it’s not just business – it’s personal. It’s about his dream, his baby.
"Has Intel hurt you and the mission?" Stahl asks.
"Yes, Intel has hurt the mission enormously," Negroponte says.
These laptops are prototypes. To get them into mass production, Negroponte needs at least 3 million orders which he thought he’d have by now. But so far he has lots of promises but no definite orders.
And he blames Intel. He spends almost all his time – about 330 days a year he says – lobbying government officials, going from one country to the next.
He says he’s confident he’ll get his orders, even though he’s about to face even more competition as other companies are working on low-cost laptops.
That will result in more kids getting them – which is, after all, what Negroponte said he wanted in the first place.
"You call your project 'One Laptop Per Child,' and you mean that every kid in the entire world is going to have a laptop. Is that realistic?" Stahl asks.
"If I was realistic I wouldn’t have started this project, okay?" Negroponte responds.
"Okay."
"So it’s not realistic," Negroponte continues. "But we’ll come close."
If you’re wondering if the One Laptop will be available in the U.S., right now Negroponte’s in talks with some states and school districts. He says it will be sold commercially in the future, but you’ll have to buy two: one for your child and one for a child in a poor country.
