It’s really good to see Intel doing the right thing and, what’s more, it’s good to see Intel apparently doing a U-Turn without blaming anyone else for it.
Joining the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is not only the right thing to do, but seems to be acknowledging ‘we got it wrong’. And that’s been pretty unimaginable for Intel in its latter years.
Intel was once the most admired company in the industry for its innovation, openness and transparency. Then it traded being respected for being big and feared, when it set out to monopolise PC processors.
Ugly tales of ugly market practices reverberated around the industry. Intel grew big and feared, but lost its sheen of being special.
Arrogance of the ‘we can do no wrong’ sort took over. When it had to back-track, the company blamed outside influences, rather than accepting it had made a mistake.
Intel wrapped itself in the mantle of Milwall supporters chanting ‘no one likes us, but we don’t care’.
So this latest decision to join OLPC looks like a change in Intel’s attitude to the world. And what could be a better cause for a U-Turn than bringing laptops to one billion of the world’s poorest children?
Of course, some awful fact may emerge of some hidden Machiavellian motive for the U-Turn.
But one hopes not.
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