Gamekeeper turned poacher?
According to an article in The Sunday Telegraph (03/03) Intel are about to launch a new £500 education-specific laptop for the UK market. This ‘new’ laptop has been armoured to help it survive the blackboard jungle. The article also went on to link this project to a Memorandum of Understanding between Intel and the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust to offer online training to teachers, with lesson plans, photos, maps and other content called Learning Paths. This sounds like a hybrid of professional development programme and social networking software.
In fact, the more likely scenario is that Intel will work with several OEM vendors and manufacturers to develop tough, low cost (i.e. far less than £500) laptops for the education market. Whether this spin is Intel’s reaction to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, which doesn’t use Intel chips, is hard to say but it’s unlikely to be a complete coincidence.
We can’t see Intel launching their own branded laptop. Can you imagine the reaction from OEM companies like RM, Viglen, Dell, Acer, Ergo and now Apple?