Good liberal crusade goes down in flames

So, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that OLPC is now cutting its workforce in half, and slashing salaries for remaining employees. Negroponte blames the economy, but that seems like an especially weak excuse, given just how strongly small, inexpensive mini-laptops (netbooks) are selling these days. Clearly, there's tremendous demand out there for super cheap, small laptops. The problem is that Negroponte decided from the beginning that his product was only for kids in developing countries, and left a massive market underserved (the rather weak give one, get one program was hardly serving the market).

TechDirt

No one really gives a darn about developing countries.

They pretend to because it makes them look good.

Whether Negroponte just failed it, or drank the kool-aid, remains open to interpretation.

The fact is that Asus beat him to the market, built a better product, and is going to continue to roll over his sad carcass on their way to world domination.