has stood on countless stages advocating to people that they buy Classmates and XOs. On the technology side, we got off to a rocky start, but we were making progress. It’s hard coming off a “60 Minutes” expose, but once you get technology people working on a technical problem to find the best solution, you’re good. The issue was on the sales side, and the disparagement we were still getting from Intel. Peru was one really extreme example. Oscar Becerra Tresierra, the vice minister of education, said to me that Intel was coming to him almost every day and saying, “Look, we are on the OLPC’s board, and we know that the laptop will never work.”
X: Weren’t you working with Intel to put a low-power Intel chip into the XO?
MLJ: Yes. It’s very simple; Intel people want to sell Intel chips. I felt that the best way to work with them was to get some Intel silicon into the XO, which we were doing. The laptop we were making with them would have been more expensive and more power-hungry, and it would have taken at least six months longer to produce. But that was not the real reason [for the split]. The cost difference would have been less than 20 percent, and the power difference would have been maybe a watt or two, and we might have been able to pull a rabbit out of the hat and ship for mass production by the summer….[The problem was] on the sales and marketing side. I know how Intel is. I worked there. They are a very aggressive company and a very successful company. People describe them affectionately as the 800-pound gorilla of semiconductors, and that is what they are.
X: How fast do you hope to get some of your new designs into the marketplace?
MLJ: We are beginning to figure out what the next-generation laptop will look like. I’m hoping you’ll be able to see something in stores by the end of the year.
X: That’s fast!
MLJ: It’s a really fast design cycle, but with the XO we went from spec to mass-production-worthy prototype in less than six months.
Customizing the screen and integrating it with the motherboard was key to the XO. Nobody has thought of the display like a chip, but the manufacturing process for LCDs is that mature. The manufacturer had never taken an external design for an LCD before. I was the first one. But I didn’t screw it up, and I’ve got other ideas I’m ready to implement. The screen was just the first step.
X: Pixel Qi has gotten quite a bit of press already. Were you expecting that, and how does it affect your plans?
MLJ: I’m thrilled by the response. I didn’t really think it would capture this amount of interest. What it indicates to me is that it’s touched a nerve, and there is some pent-up demand. That’s good—I think we can deliver to that demand.
I’m raising financing and working on the design of the first actual products. I’m exploring many different paths, but my inclination is that we will sell products.
Everybody at CES was interested. I’ve been talking to some big-name companies that you’ve heard of. I am bringing together the investors and figuring out what the first products will be, and I’ll announce that when we’re ready.
