According to the press release, "Classmate PCs are rugged and include features that are commonly found in today's mainstream PCs (such as storage and built-in wireless), and are capable of running mainstream applications including video and educational software."

Intel's Celeron® M processor is at the core of these classmate PCs and the corporation works with the locals--companies in each "emerging market"/country that create software and hardware--who are in charge of making and distributing the devices, as well as providing support and service for the machines.

Which begs the question... where was Apple in all of this? With their partnership with Intel, this could have been a great chance to make a huge impact as far as market share, and to command the education market all over the world, right?

Wasn't it just two years ago that the Wall Street Journal--via AppleInsider.com--reported that then Apple Computer, Inc. was said to have been interested in this whole idea of a "One Laptop Per Child" program?

Heck, even Steve Jobs himself said that he'd offer copies of Mac OS X free-of-charge as the operating system for these sub $100 laptops, but according to the report, was turned down because the OS wasn't "open source" enough.

Of the five big companies that donated $2 million towards the project, one of those was Google and the other? AMD. Intel was nowhere to be found in the equation--nor was Apple for that matter--and two years later, Intel is at the forefront of the program.

Or were they, Intel, "secretly" involved from the get-go (based on the next piece of info)?

Yesterday we spoke with Nor Badron of Intel who tells us, "Apple was not approached when Intel started working on this initiative two years ago. Over the years, Intel has been working with various industry players to define and develop the classmate PC platform."

Of course, the close relationship between Intel and Apple is only a recent thing.

So with that in mind, with the chip-maker and the hardware/software maker now on the same side of the fence--green grass, beautiful trees (apple trees?), lush flowers, and bunnies and snails happily living in the same garden, with all the bugs worked out--does that increase the possibility of Apple hopping, uh, jumping into the fray?

Badron says, "Intel is continuously looking at partnering with other IT industry players. We understand that one single approach cannot address the diversities in the education ecosystems worldwide..."

"...so there is always that possibility of Intel working with companies such as Apple on classmate PCs."

Ah, at least there is a possibility, which is all that counts. It's all, elementary...

[Note: Apple Inc. could not be reached for comment as of press time].

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