One Laptop per Child developer starts own company

Will sell new technology to non-profit foundation at cost

Last Updated: Thursday, January 10, 2008 | 3:59 PM ET

CBC News

The woman behind One Laptop per Child's low-cost XO computer has founded her own company.

Mary Lou Jepsen officially launched her new company, Pixel Qi, on Thursday and on the new company's website described it as a "spin-out" of the One Laptop per Child project, which was created in 2005 to provide affordable laptop computers to children in the developing world.

Mary Lou Jepsen, left, seen in 2005 with One Laptop per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte, has started her own company with the intention to commercialize the technology she developed.
(Michel Euler/Associated Press)

"The key is a new generation of low-cost, low-power, durable, networked computers, leveraging open-design principles," she wrote.

One of her goals is to create a $75 laptop, she added.

During her two years as chief technology officer of the One Laptop per Child non-profit foundation, Jepsen invented the inexpensive, power-efficient screen that was a key feature of the foundation's compact, child-friendly laptop, known as the XO. She left the foundation at the end of 2007 to commercialize the technology.

The Pixel Qi website says the new company will sell new products to One Laptop per Child at cost as they are developed.

One Laptop per Child has been mired in controversy since its creation.

Computer juggernauts, including Microsoft, were uneasy about the project because of concerns it would impact their business if the technology were commercialized.

Developers had originally marketed the laptops as costing $100 US, but the price was not fixed, and the XO currently retails for just under $200 US.

In late 2007, a Nigeria-based company filed a $20 million US lawsuit against One Laptop per Child, claiming that the foundation's keyboard design infringed on one of its products.

And on Jan. 4, 2008, Intel backed out of the project, claiming One Laptop per Child had pressured the company to stop supporting Classmate PC, a similar initiative.