OLPC Shifts to Business-Like Approach, Looks for New CEO

Initially started as an academic project, professor Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child initiative is currently re-building itself as a commercial enterprise. The project aims at delivering $100 laptop computers to be deployed in the developing countries schools in order to fight against the digital divide – a term that defines the discrepancy between the high-tech world and the third-world countries left out of the digital revolution.

The OLPC initiative is currently shipping its tiny, rugged XO sub-notebooks and some may consider that it has reached its goal. Yet the project has been faced with a multitude of shortcomings, such as production delays, harsh competition from Intel's Classmate PC, as well as the final price per notebook, that went from $100 to about $200.

The "Give One, Get One" program allowed US-based buyers to purchase an XO sub-notebook for the price of two; the second unit was to be donated to a child in the developing countries. However, the program managed to frustrate its most important donors because of numerous delays and shipping issues. The OLPC initiative spun out a new subsidiary called "OLPC America" earlier this year in order to start shipping the rugged XO units on the American territory as well.

The next move for the OLPC charity initiative is to gear up and resurrect as a commercial enterprise, rather than an academic project. This includes the replacement of Nicholas Negroponte, the company's CEO, with a sharp-toothed businessman that can re-organize the charity's business to suit the market. According to Nicholas Negroponte, OLPC has already started looking for a new CEO. The business will also be split in four divisions: fundraising and administration, market development, deployment, and technology.

"Management, administration, and details are my weaknesses," Negroponte stated. "I'm much better at the vision, big-picture side of the house."

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