The OLPC project has been received with much praise, and for the most part they've been able to overcome negative press without resorting to it themselves. Now, however, the founder of the project is accusing Intel of trying to force OLPC out of the market. He claims that the "Classmate", a low-cost laptop akin to the OLPC machines, has been built and priced at such a point to intentionally drive him out of business. Intel of course denies this on all sides. Negroponte claims that much of the motivation behind Intel's actions are because the OLPC machine uses AMD processors:
Though the hardware specifications differ between Intel's low-cost laptops and Negroponte's, OLPC founder believes that the main problem is that his machines use AMD processors, Intel's main competitor. "Intel and AMD fight viciously," he told CBS. "We're just sort of caught in the middle."
On top of that, he cites negative literature from Intel that criticizes the OLPC. All that aside, there is still one very key area, particularly key for developing countries, that the OLPC is winning on: Price. Even at the higher cost of $175 per unit, they are still cheaper than the Classmate, which will be over $200. If they can manage to whittle themselves down to a $100 unit, they could stave off an awful lot of flak from Intel, true or not.