| In 2005, Nicholas Negroponte unveiled an idea for bridging the technology divide between rich nations and the developing world. It was captivating in its utter simplicity: design a $100 laptop and, within four years, get it into the hands of up to 150 million of the world's poorest schoolchildren. World leaders and corporate benefactors jumped in to support the nonprofit project, called One Laptop Per Child. Mr. Negroponte, a professor on leave from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hopscotched the world collecting pledges from developing nations to buy the laptops in bulk. But nearly three years later, only about 2,000 students in pilot programs have received computers from the One Laptop project. An order from Uruguay for 100,000 machines appears to be the only solid deal to date with a country, although Mr. Negroponte says he's on the verge of sealing an order from Peru for 250,000. The first mass-production run, which began this month in China, is for 300,000 laptops, tens of thousands of which are slated to go to U.S. consumers. Mr. Negroponte's goal of 150 million users by the end of 2008 looks unattainable. Mr. Negroponte's ambitious plan has been derailed, in part, by the power of his idea. For-profit companies threatened by the projected $100 price tag set off at a sprint to develop their own dirt-cheap machines, plunging Mr. Negroponte into unexpected competition against well-known brands such as Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system. A version of Mr. Negroponte's vision is starting to come true. Impoverished countries are indeed snapping up cheap laptops for their schoolchildren -- just not anywhere near as many of his as he expected. They now have several cut-price models to choose from, raising the possibility that One Laptop Per Child, or OLPC, will end up as a niche player. 'I'm not good at selling laptops,' Mr. Negroponte has told colleagues. 'I'm good at selling ideas.' 'From my point of view, if the world were to have 30 million' laptops made by competitors 'in the hands of children at the end of next year, that to me would be a great success,' he said in a recent interview. 'My goal is not selling laptops. OLPC is not in the laptop business. It's in the education business.' From its inception, One Laptop Per Child posed a threat to the personal-computing dominance of software giant Microsoft and chip maker Intel. Mr. Negroponte's team, drawn from MIT, designed a machine that didn't use Windows or Intel chips. It uses the Linux operating system and other nonproprietary, open-source software, which users are allowed to tinker with. Last year, Intel, which normally doesn't sell computers, introduced a small laptop for developing countries called the Classmate, which currently goes for between $230 and $300. It has marketed the computer aggressively, although it stands to make little money on the initiative. But it hopes to prevent rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc., or AMD, whose chips are in Mr. Negroponte's competing computer, from becoming a standard in the developing world. By most accounts, Mr. Negroponte and his 20-member team have created a rugged, innovative laptop with good software for learning. The small green-and-white device is designed to operate on very little power -- a small solar panel can keep it going -- and to resist rain and dust. Its unique, high-resolution screen stays bright even in direct sunlight. The laptop has a built-in video camera and connects wirelessly to the Internet and to other laptops of its kind. But the project has hit snags. The $100 price target is proving difficult to hit, although Mr. Negroponte's team has succeeded in creating a device that's cheaper than other laptops. It now sells for $188, plus shipping. Potential buyers in the developing world have expressed concern about the availability of training for schoolteachers, and after-sales support. Mr. Negroponte's plan is for the machines to be simple enough that students can train themselves -- and solve any glitches that arise. Some potential buyers are having second thoughts about One Laptop Per Child. Officials in Libya, who had planned to buy up to 1.2 million of the laptops, became concerned that the machines lacked Windows, and that service, teacher training and future upgrades might become a problem. 'The Intel machine is a lot better than the OLPC,' says Mohamed Bani, who chairs Libya's technical advisory committee but doesn't have the final say on buying laptops. 'I don't want my country to be a junkyard for these machines.' Libya has decided buy at least 150,000 Intel Classmates. The future of the One Laptop program there is now uncertain. Mr. Negroponte, who is 63 years old, is a computer-science expert and veteran technology investor. He co-founded and formerly directed the MIT Media Laboratory and helped to found Wired Magazine. He serves on the board of Motorola Inc. Recently, he was selected by News Corp. to serve on a committee to protect the editorial integrity of Dow Jones & Co., the owner of The Wall Street Journal, following News Corp.'s agreement to purchase the company. His brother is U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte. Nicholas Negroponte unveiled his $100-laptop plan in January 2005 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, suggesting it would transform education for the world's disadvantaged schoolchildren and help eliminate poverty. Later that year, he predicted the project would sell 100 million to 150 million laptops in 2008 to developing countries. Google Inc., AMD and News Corp. were among the companies that each kicked in $2 million of funding. In November 2005, then United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan publicly endorsed the concept, demonstrating an early prototype powered by a hand crank, a feature that subsequently was scrapped. At a presentation seven months ago, Mr. Negroponte expressed confidence that he had commitments from countries to purchase 2.5 million laptops in 2007. But the Taiwan-based manufacturer, Quanta Computer Inc., is producing only 300,000 units this year, he said in a recent interview. At a conference this month, he said that his new goal for 2008 is to produce one million laptops a month, but he added that he can't say when that target will be reached. Because the initial production volume is smaller than expected, the project hasn't benefited from anticipated economies of scale. Design upgrades -- more memory and a faster microprocessor, the brains of the machine -- also added to the price, apparently costing the project sales. Nigeria, for example, so far has failed to honor a pledge by its former president to purchase one million laptops. That's partly because they no longer cost $100 apiece, says Tomi Davies, a Nigerian-born technology entrepreneur who helped Mr. Negroponte set up talks with Nigerian officials. The higher price also has made the laptop vulnerable to competition from sellers of more traditional, Windows-based machines. For many education ministries, 'it's a no-brainer you go with Microsoft,' says Mr. Davies. The One Laptop initiative is facing competition from Taiwanese, Indian and Israeli sellers of inexpensive Windows laptops, who see the developing world's more than one billion potential young customers as a big opportunity. Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., so far has proven the biggest competitive threat. The introduction of the low-cost Classmate sparked accusations by Mr. Negroponte that Intel was trying to undermine his nonprofit initiative. Intel made a multimillion-dollar contribution to the One Laptop project and joined its board in July. Nevertheless, Intel has continued to compete with the nonprofit, and it appears to be winning. It recently inked deals to sell hundreds of thousands of Classmates in Nigeria, Libya and Pakistan -- countries that Mr. Negroponte had been counting on. Intel has launched a series of pilot projects in those countries, and has said it will test the Classmate in at least 22 other nations, donating thousands of machines. In recent months, Mr. Negroponte has abandoned his initial strategy of trying to persuade a half-dozen developing countries -- Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Thailand -- to buy one million laptops each. The project has begun accepting much smaller orders, and is attempting to persuade wealthier countries, including Italy and Spain, to finance laptops for poorer ones. As sales problems mounted, the project recently reversed course on its plan not to sell the device to American consumers. On Nov. 12, it began selling pairs of laptops to U.S. and Canadian buyers for $399. Under the program -- called 'Give One. Get One.' -- one goes to a student in a poor country like Haiti, the other to the buyer. The program was supposed to last just two weeks, but on Thursday One Laptop said it was extending the offer through Dec. 31 because 'people want more time to participate.' Mr. Negroponte says there were about 45,000 two-laptop orders in the first nine days, with nearly half coming on the first day. Suppliers are grumbling about missed forecasts and lowered expectations. 'We wish they would ship more, absolutely,' says Scott Soong of Chi Mei Group, the Taiwanese manufacturer of the laptop's screen, who also serves on One Laptop's board. Laptop-maker Quanta, which was told early this year to expect initial orders of five million to eight million, also is disappointed, according to a person familiar with the matter. 'We're all frustrated with each other,' says Mr. Negroponte of the friction with Quanta and suppliers. 'Everybody's got a short fuse.' He seems most frustrated with Intel, whose overseas sales force has trumpeted the Classmate over his laptop in Nigeria and Mongolia, using marketing materials that claim the Intel machine is superior. 'These are not isolated examples,' he said in a recent interview. 'They are daily events.' At a meeting this month in Cambridge, Mass., with representatives of Macedonia's government, Mr. Negroponte balked at authorizing a pilot project there after learning that officials also were considering testing the Classmate. He told them he didn't want to participate in a 'bake-off.' Mr. Negroponte says he communicated this month with Intel's chief executive, Paul Otellini, and demanded that Intel stop selling the Classmate. Intel, which says there is room in the market for many machines, has refused, according to a spokeswoman. Mr. Negroponte says he got the idea for the initiative after working on educational projects in Cambodia and other developing countries, where he saw that computers could spur children to learn and explore outside the classroom. In November 2005, he demonstrated a working prototype with Mr. Annan at a U.N. technology conference in Tunisia. 'It was the main highlight of the whole summit,' says Raul Zambrano, a senior technology adviser at the U.N. Development Program, which provides assistance to developing countries and shared a booth with Mr. Negroponte. 'People were coming up with cash, saying, 'I want to buy it now!' ' Mr. Zambrano recalls. Mr. Negroponte draws no salary from the nonprofit, which only has about 20 paid employees. For most of the past three years, he has promoted his idea around the world, meeting with numerous heads of state. In mid-2006, a One Laptop official said the project had 'commitments' from Nigeria, Brazil, Argentina and Thailand to purchase one million laptops each. The organization later retracted the claim. In October 2006, the New York Times reported that Libya had agreed to buy up to 1.2 million of the laptops by June 2008. Publicly, Intel and Microsoft officials didn't hide their disdain for Mr. Negroponte's machine. In December 2005, Intel Chairman Craig R. Barrett called an early version a '$100 gadget' that wasn't likely to succeed. At a conference in March 2006, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said: 'Geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you're not sitting there cranking the thing while you're trying to type.' This year, Mr. Gates announced in China that Microsoft would offer developing countries a $3 software package that includes Windows, a student version of Microsoft Office and educational programs. Mr. Negroponte said the move was a direct response to his project. James Utzschneider, general manager of Microsoft's Unlimited Potential Group, a unit whose targets include young people in developing countries, denies this. Libya and Egypt plan to buy the $3 software, Mr. Utzschneider says. Mr. Negroponte had hoped to sell his Linux-based laptops to both countries. Mr. Utzschneider says an organization in Russia has signed an agreement to buy at least 200,000 copies, with an option to buy up to 800,000 more. The Russians, he says, initially will load the software onto a low-cost laptop made by Asustek Computer Inc. of Taiwan, another One Laptop competitor. By this spring, many of Mr. Negroponte's informal agreements with world leaders to buy millions of laptops appeared to be unraveling. The prime minister of Thailand, who backed the project, was removed in a military coup. Nigeria was having second thoughts, in part because of the rising cost of the machine, according to Tomi Davies, who is helping One Laptop in Nigeria. Last month, Intel's Mr. Barrett visited Nigeria and announced that the company would donate 3,000 Classmates to schools there and would train 150,000 teachers to use computers in the classroom. 'We can't compete,' complains Ayo Kusamotu, One Laptop's attorney in Nigeria. 'The minute we started getting some traction, they [Intel] intensified their effort.' Nigeria recently agreed to purchase 17,000 Intel Classmates. In May, Mr. Negroponte appeared on CBS's '60 Minutes' and blasted Intel, suggesting it was trying to drive his nonprofit out of business. Intel's Mr. Barrett called that idea 'crazy.' Two months later, Intel announced it was joining One Laptop's board. The agreement included a 'nondisparagement' clause, under which Intel and One Laptop promised not to criticize each other, according to Mr. Negroponte. John Davies, who oversees Classmate sales at Intel, says that after the broadcast, Intel decided to 'purge' any marketing material that directly compares the competing laptops. But last month, an Intel representative gave a PowerPoint presentation to a Mongolian official that offered a 'head-to-head comparison' between the Classmate and the One Laptop machine. Intel claimed the Classmate prevailed in nine of 13 categories, including processor speed and support for different operating systems, a copy of the presentation indicates. Intel's Mr. Davies says the presentation violated company policy. 'Sometimes you get escapees,' he says, adding that he will be doing some 'retraining' of the sales staff. Mr. Negroponte says he complained to Intel's chief executive two weeks ago, then 'made peace.' Intel and the One Laptop project, he says, have agreed to work together to design by early January a new 'Intel-based' One Laptop device. An Intel spokeswoman confirmed Mr. Negroponte's account, but said any comment would be 'premature.' AMD, whose chips are used in One Laptop's current machines, declined to comment. There are no signs that Mr. Negroponte's project is in danger of fading away. Robert Fadel, its director of finance and operations, says the nonprofit has enough funding to last years. Its dozen corporate benefactors this year contributed $16.5 million, and it will be using $1 from each computer sold to cover administrative costs. Last year, it took in $7.6 million in revenue, mainly from donors, and its budget this year is about $9.5 million. As of September, it had $8.7 million in cash on hand, an internal document indicates. But it continues to face skepticism from its target audience. At a training conference it hosted this month in Cambridge for a large group of educators and tech specialists from developing countries, participants peppered Mr. Negroponte and other project officials with questions about teacher training and software bugs. 'It will always have bugs in it and it will never be perfect,' Mr. Negroponte told them, adding that he has a 'royal battle' with his Windows-based computer nearly every morning. Later, at a private meeting with a group from Rwanda, he announced that 20,000 laptops, courtesy of the 'Give One. Get One.' program, would soon be distributed. Carine Umutesi, who works for Rwanda's Information Technology Authority, questioned who would fix them if they break. Mr. Negroponte said some initial tech support would be provided by Brightstar Corp., a Miami-based wireless equipment distributor. Just who would provide support a few years from now, he said, was 'a frightening question.' The students, he said, will need 'to do as much maintenance as possible.'
| 尼古拉斯•尼葛洛庞帝(Nicholas Negroponte)在2005年曾雄心勃勃的向世人宣布他要填补发达国家与发展中国家的技术差距。他的想法非常简单，就是要在4年内设计出一种只卖100美元的笔记本电脑，并让全世界1.5亿落后国家的在校儿童人手一部。 一时间，全球各国领导人和企业赞助商纷纷表示要支持这项名为“一个孩子一部电脑”(One Laptop Per Child)的非盈利计划。这位麻省理工学院(MIT)教授搞得全世界的发展中国家都信誓旦旦的表示，要大量购买这种电脑。 但3 年时间过去了，只有大约2000名参加该项目试点的学生得到了这种电脑。订单方面只有来自乌拉圭的10万部订单还算像点样。不过据尼葛洛庞帝称，与秘鲁已基本谈成一笔25万部订单。这种电脑本月在中国首次开始量产，第一批规模是30万部。然而，其中却有好几万部是准备卖给美国消费者的。看来尼葛洛庞帝是无法完成在2008年让全世界1.5亿贫困儿童用上笔记本电脑的心愿了。 某种程度而言，尼葛洛庞帝的这项宏伟计划是被其自身的影响力拖了后腿。原因是这项“100美元笔记本”计划威胁到盈利性企业的利益，于是他们纷纷开发自己的廉价机型，导致尼葛洛庞帝陷入与英特尔(Intel Corp.)、微软(Microsoft Corp.)的Windows操作系统等知名品牌的激烈竞争中。 然而尼葛洛庞帝的雄心却在以另一种方式变成现实。贫困国家的确在为本国的儿童采购廉价笔记本电脑，只不过不像他预想的那样普遍。而且，现在这些贫困国家有好几种备选的机型，这使得尼葛洛庞帝的OLPC计划有因力小势微而被边缘化的危险。 按照尼葛洛庞帝对同事所说的，他不是一位好的售货员，不过他善于推销自己的理念。 尼葛洛庞帝最近接受采访时表示，在他看来，如果明年底之前能有3,000万儿童用上我的竞争对手生产的笔记本电脑，那可以说是我的一大胜利。我立下这一目标并非为了自己卖电脑，OLPC并非一项业务，它属于教育事业。 从一开始，OLPC计划就对垄断个人电脑市场的软件巨头微软和芯片巨头英特尔构成了威胁。尼葛洛庞帝从麻省理工带出来的团队设计的笔记本电脑并未采用这两家公司的产品，而是用了Linux系统和其他非专利、开放源代码的软件，这样用户自己就可以改造这些软件。 像英特尔这样向来不自己销售电脑的公司，竟然在去年面向发展中国家推出了一款名为“Classmate”的小型笔记本电脑，目前的售价在每台230至300 美元。英特尔虽然没打算在这款产品上挣钱，但仍在营销上下了很大力气，其原因在于：尼葛洛庞帝设计的电脑选用了高级微设备公司(Advanced Micro Devices)的芯片，而英特尔要阻止AMD芯片成为发展中市场的标准配置。 尼葛洛庞帝和他手下20名成员组成的团队设计出了一种耐用、新颍的笔记本电脑，并配以易于学习的软件。这款绿白相间的机型小巧玲珑，设计耗电量非常小，只需一块小型太阳能电池就能维持运转。它不但防水防尘，且其独特的高分辨率显示屏即使在阳光直射时也能看得一清二楚。此外，它还安装了内置的摄像头和无线网卡。 不过项目也遇到了困难。虽然尼葛洛庞帝和他的团队成功设计出了比其他笔记本电脑更便宜的机器，但实践证明，100美元的目标难度还是很大的。目前这款电脑的价格是每台188美元，还要外加运费。而发展中国家的潜在买家对教师培训和售后服务等方面还存有顾虑。尼葛洛庞帝的想法是把机器做得足够简单，让学生自学，并自己解决各种小故障。 一些潜在买家开始打退堂鼓了。利比亚政府原打算采购最多120万部电脑，但他们现在对机器没用Windows系统、售后服务、培训和未来的产品升级等方面都存在顾虑。 利比亚技术顾问委员会主席穆罕默德•巴尼(Mohamed Bani)说，英特尔的电脑要比OLPC的电脑好很多。我们不想让自己的国家变成这种机器的垃圾场。该委员会没有采购电脑的决定权。不过利比亚最近决定采购至少15万部英特尔Classmates电脑。现在OLPC计划可谓前景难料。 尼葛洛庞帝现年63岁，是一位电脑科学专家和资深科技业投资人。麻省理工的媒体实验室正是由他联合发起成立，他还曾担任该实验室的负责人。此外他还参与创办了Wired杂志。他是摩托罗拉(Motorola Inc.)董事会成员；最近，在新闻集团(News Corp.)与《华尔街日报》母公司道琼斯(Dow Jones & Co.)达成收购协议后，他被任命为一个旨在保护道琼斯新闻报导独立性的委员会的成员。
谷歌(Google Inc.)、高级微设备和新闻集团等公司分别提供了200万美元资金。2005年11月，时任联合国秘书长的科菲•安南(Kofi Annan)公开表示支持这一理念，他展示了一个由手摇柄驱动的早期机型，这个功能后来被放弃了。 在7 个月前的一次演示会上，尼葛洛庞帝表示将努力在2007年从各国拿到250万台笔记本电脑的订单。但他在最近一次采访中说，负责生产的台湾广达电脑 (Quanta Computer Inc.)今年只出了30万台。在本月的一次会议上，他说他2008年的最新目标是每个月生产100万台，但他又说，他不能确定什么时候能达到这一目标。 由于最初的产量低于预期，该项目没有实现预期的规模效益。设计升级（增加内存、采用速度更快的微处理器）也推高了价格，显然影响了该项目的销售。 以尼日利亚为例，该国迄今仍未兑现其前总统的诺言：购买100万台笔记本电脑。出生于尼日利亚的科技企业家汤米•戴维斯(Tomi Davies)说，部分原因在于这些电脑的售价并不是每台100美元。戴维斯曾帮助尼葛洛庞帝安排与尼日利亚政府官员的会谈。 偏高的价格让这种笔记本在与基于Windows的传统电脑的竞争中居于劣势。戴维斯说：“人们会毫不犹豫地选择微软的产品。” OLPC计划面临来自台湾、印度和以色列等地销售商的竞争，他们销售低价的Windows笔记本电脑，将发展中国家的10多亿潜在年轻客户视为巨大的商机。 到目前为止，英特尔是OLPC产品最大的竞争对手。英特尔推出成本低廉的Classmate机型，惹得尼葛洛庞帝指责该公司试图破坏他的非盈利初衷。英特尔曾向OLPC计划捐款数百万美元，并于7月加入了OLPC管理委员会。 然而，因特尔仍继续与这个非赢利项目竞争，且大有胜出的迹象。最近该公司达成交易，在尼日利亚、利比亚和巴基斯坦销售数万台Classmate电脑。这些正是尼葛洛庞帝寄予期望的国家。英特尔已在这些国家实施了一系列试点计划，并声称将捐赠数万台电脑，供另外的至少22个国家试用。 最近几个月，尼葛洛庞帝已经放弃他当初的一个目标──让阿根廷、巴西、利比亚、尼日利亚、巴勒斯坦和泰国这6个发展中国家分别购买100万台笔记本电脑。这个项目开始接受规模很小的定单，并试图说服意大利和西班牙等较为富裕的国家出钱为穷国购买笔记本电脑。 随着销售问题日渐严重，该项目最近改变了不向美国用户销售的做法。11月12日，该项目开始以399美元两台的价格在美国和加拿大市场销售。这次销售的口号是“买一送一”，即在买主得到一台电脑的同时，某个穷国的孩子也将得到一台。活动原本为期两周，但上周四OLPC称将延续到12月31号，原因是“人们想要更多的时间参与”。尼葛洛庞帝说，活动头9天共收到约45,000份买一送一的定单，其中半数是在第一天收到的。 供应商对预测错误和销量低于预期的情况颇有怨言。台湾奇美集团(Chi Mei Group)的Scott Soong说：“我们当然希望他们多定购些。”奇美集团是OLPC笔记本显示器制造商，也是OLPC董事会成员之一。据知情人士透露，生产笔记本的广达电脑也很失望，今年早些时候该公司被告知首批将会有500-800万台的定单。 尼葛洛庞帝谈到与广达和其他供应商的摩擦时说：“我们都对彼此很不满。每个人都窝了一肚子火。” 他似乎对英特尔最为不满，后者的海外销售团队在尼日利亚和蒙古大肆宣传Classmate，在广告资料中称Classmate优于其他同类笔记本电脑。他在最近一次采访中说：“这些并非孤立的个案，而是一直如此。” 本月，尼葛洛庞帝在MIT会见了马其顿政府的代表，他得知后者也在考虑试用Classmate电脑，于是决定放弃授权在马其顿进行试点。他对这些官员说，他不想参加“烤面包大赛”。 尼葛洛庞帝说，他本月与英特尔首席执行长欧德宁(Paul Otellini)进行了沟通，要求英特尔停止销售Classmate电脑。据英特尔发言人说，公司拒绝了这个要求，公司认为市场有足够空间容纳大量电脑。 尼葛洛庞帝说，最初是因为他在柬埔寨和其他一些发展中国家实施教育项目的经历激发了OLPC想法的雏形，在那些地方，他看到电脑能激励孩子们学习和探索课堂之外的世界。 2005 年11月，尼葛洛庞帝和安南一起在突尼斯召开的联合国技术大会上展示了一台样机。联合国开发计划署(U.N. Development Program)高级技术顾问赞布拉诺(Raul Zambrano)说，这是整个峰会的主要亮点。联合国开发计划署为发展中国家提供援助，在此次大会上与尼葛洛庞帝共用一个展台。赞布拉诺回忆说，人们拿着现金过来说，“我现在就想买！” OLPC只有大约20名员工是领工资的，而尼葛洛庞帝不再其中。过去3年中的大部分时间，他与世界各国政府首脑会面，向他们宣传自己的计划。2006年年中OLPC管理人员称，尼日利亚、巴西、阿根廷和泰国已做出承诺，每个国家将购买100万台OLPC电脑，但该机构后来又收回了这一说法。2006年10月，《纽约时报》报导称利比亚已同意在2008年6月前购买120万台。 英特尔和微软的管理人士在公开场合都毫不掩盖他们对OLPC电脑的不屑。2005年12月，英特尔董事长贝瑞特(Craig R. Barrett)将OLPC的一个早期机型称为“100美元的小玩意”，认为它不太可能获得成功。在2006年3月召开的一次大会上，微软董事长盖茨 (Bill Gates)说，至少该弄个还过得去的电脑，让你能清楚地看到字、而且不用坐在那里一边打字一边还要费劲摇手柄。 今年，盖茨在中国宣布微软将向发展中国家提供3美元软件包，其中包括Windows操作系统、学生版Office软件以及教学课程。尼葛洛庞帝表示，盖茨此举是正面应对OLPC计划的。微软Unlimited Potential Group总经理乌茨施耐德(James Utzschneider)否认了这一点。 Unlimited Potential Group是一个面向发展中国家青少年的发展计划。 乌茨施耐德说，利比亚和埃及计划购买微软的3美元软件包。在此之前，尼葛洛庞帝曾希望向这两个国家出售安装Linux的OLPC电脑。乌茨施耐德说俄罗斯的一个组织已与微软签订了协议，将购买至少20万套这种软件包，最多有可能购买100万。他说，俄罗斯人开始阶段将把这款软件包安装到台湾华硕电脑 (Asustek Computer)生产的低成本笔记本电脑上。华硕也是OLPC计划的一个竞争对手。 截至今年春天，尼葛洛庞帝与世界各国签订的总数达数百万台的非正式采购协议似乎都已化为泡影。 曾经支持该计划的泰国总理他信已在军事政变中被推翻。在尼日利亚帮助宣传OLPC的汤米•戴维斯说，尼日利亚也在重新考虑这个问题，原因之一是因为这种电脑的价格不断上升。上个月，英特尔董事长贝瑞特访问了尼日利亚，并宣布英特尔将向该国学校捐赠3,000台Classmate电脑，并对15万名教师进行培训，帮助他们在教学中使用Classmate电脑。 OLPC驻尼日利亚的律师库萨莫图(Ayo Kusamotu)抱怨道：“我们无法（与英特尔）竞争。我们刚一收到一些购买意向，他们（英特尔）就会加大销售力度。”尼日利亚最近同意购买1.7万台英特尔Classmate电脑。 5 月份，尼葛洛庞帝现身哥伦比亚广播公司(CBS)“60分钟”节目，猛烈抨击了英特尔，指出英特尔试图把非营利机构OLPC逼到绝境。英特尔董事长贝瑞特称这种想法是“不理智”的。两个月后，英特尔宣布将加入OLPC董事会。尼葛洛庞帝表示，双方的协议包括一条“互不诋毁”条款，双方承诺不批评对方。 英特尔负责Classmate销售的约翰•戴维斯(John Davies)说，在那期“60分钟”节目播出之后，英特尔决定“清理”任何将这两种互相竞争的笔记本电脑进行直接比较的营销资料。但上个月，一位英特尔的代表向蒙古国政府官员做了一次演示，其中包括Classmate和OLPC电脑的详细比较。该演示材料的副本显示，英特尔称在13个比较项目中， Classmate有9个优于OLPC，包括处理速度和对不同操作系统的支持性。 英特尔的戴维斯表示，这次演示违反了公司政策。他说，有时确实会有“漏网之鱼”，他会对销售人员进行“再培训”。 尼葛洛庞帝说，他两周前向英特尔的首席执行长投诉此事，双方后来达成了和解。他说，英特尔和OLPC计划已同意在明年1月份之前合作设计一款安装英特尔芯片的新型OLPC电脑。一位英特尔发言人证实了他的这种说法，但表示现在发表任何评论都为时过早。OLPC目前使用的是AMD的芯片，AMD拒绝就此发表评论。 目前还没有迹象显示尼葛洛庞帝的计划有撑不下去的危险。OLPC财务及运营总监罗伯特•费德尔(Robert Fadel)说，该计划有足以维持数年的资金。今年它的几十家赞助企业共贡献了1,650万美元，而销售一台电脑将需要大约1美元的行政成本。去年，该项目收入760万美元，大部分来自捐赠者，今年的预算大约为950万美元。一份内部文件显示，截至9月份，OLPC手上共有870万美元现金。 但OLPC 仍面临来自目标受众的怀疑之声。本月在马萨诸塞为来自发展中国家的教师和技术专员举办的一次培训大会上，与会者向尼葛洛庞帝和其他OLPC管理人员提出了大量关于教师培训和软件缺陷的问题。尼葛洛庞帝告诉他们，软件缺陷永远不会消失，软件永远不会达到完美境地。他还说自己几乎每天早上都要与安装 Window操作系统的电脑“较量”一番。 之后，在与卢旺达一个团体的私下会面中，尼葛洛庞帝宣布即将交付2万台笔记本电脑，这些电脑是 “买一送一”计划的一部分。卢旺达信息技术主管部门Information Technology Authority的乌姆特斯(Carine Umutesi)问道，如果电脑出现故障，谁能提供维修服务。 尼葛洛庞帝说，迈阿密无线设备分销商Brightstar Corp.会提供一些早期技术支持。他说，至于几年之后由谁提供技术支持，这是个“令人恐惧的问题”。他表示，学生们需要尽可能维护好电脑。 |
