Intel Inside Children Education
In the current recessionary phase when enterprises are trying to trim assets, workers, and other costs, tech vendors are finding it difficult to depend solely on traditional corporate buyers. They’re constantly scurrying here and there to grab more buyers - at new places, in new niches.

Now many tech marketers are eying global children - mainly in the developing or underdeveloped nations - with various computer-based education initiatives. But how will these poor children pay for computers? Sounds a little paradoxical. But it’s not. The marketers’ eyes are in fact on the deep pockets of governments in these countries who have massive budgets for children’s education.

Leading chipmaker Intel is among the frontrunners in the race to grab a good share in the education market. Its campaign is built around a PC called Classmate, which is now being positioned as Netbook. Let’s ask Intel a few questions about this project.

So here it goes:

1.    An initiative like Intel Classmate PC for children is an altruistic, commercial, or commercial-under-the-garb-of-altruism campaign?
2.    What’s behind calling them Netbooks now?
3.    If Intel really wants to participate in low-cost computer-based education programs, it could have continued with the Nicholas Negroponte-driven One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project. What’s the point in starting a parallel education drive?
4.    What have you learned from the OLPC debacle (excuse me to label it as debacle)?
5.    Is there any definite content support for the new-generation Classmates? Or will they also be dumped as dumb boxes in developing nations?
6.    Are you sure that traditional education system is not good enough and computers are inevitable for children’s education particularly in developing nations?

Will Intel reply?

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