First, there was One Laptop Per Child. And then there was Intel's Classmate PC. And now there is a third one-to-one laptop initiative to bring computing power and Internet connectivity to the developing world: One Macbook Per Child
While I expected OMPC to be announced in the secret diary of Steve Jobs, it was Mobile Macs that first noted Jobs' efforts in conjunction with Metalab veterans.
I don't know about you, but I am very excited about this new laptop for students entrant. Metalab is a funky hacker space for people to do creative things with technology and I can see their influence on One Macbook Per Child already.
Not content to only focus on notebooks, Metalab is expanding the scope of OMPC beyond the myopia of OLPC. OMPC is looking at the entire youth technology culture:
The OMPC foundation is proud to announce a partnership with Microsoft, one of the worlds leading software companies. As a part of our commitment to support adolescents all over the globe, we are now preparing the launch of our "One Zune per Teen" project, to help underprivileged juveniles escape the social stigma of not owning a portable music player.Now isn't OMPC + OZPT is a great two-fer? Children everywhere will soon be able to feel the full impact of office automation software in their lives. They can create amazing Excel spreadsheets of the kind, generous, and artist-respecting recording industry's intellectual property rights on both iTues and Microsoft Digital Rights Media formats!
Is this a joke with the Mac?
What ever happened to the original 3 in the competition, XO, Intel and Mobilis? Where is the whole evaluation with those 3 at and has the Gov't of Brazil made a decision yet?
Karl
Did you post too early? I was expecting the OMPC announcement two Sundays from now ...
Hahaha. What a great spoof on OLPC.
It also begs the question, 'What about all those old Macs out there?'
There should be a trade-in scheme offered where older Macs can be traded in at a generous discount on a spanking new Powerbook.
The old trade-ins then get dumped on unsuspecting third world countries.
Everyone wins!
I am delighted that olpc has stimulated this very promising corporate response from Apple. Perhaps next we will see IBM announce a One Mainframe Per Child project.
And I was hoping for one Atari 2600 Per Child (at heart). I still haven't made it to the end of Pitfall and was hoping my (future) son would do me proud.