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At the Consumer Electronics Show, one little product stands out from the crowd, but this

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laptop isn't aimed at people here. The computers are made by a charity called One Laptop per

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Child, which is trying to persuade governments in countries like Nigeria that cheap computing

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is a good way of giving children a better start in life.

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This whole project has had the backing of many giant corporations from the computing

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world, including Intel. But now it's pulled out, sparking a huge row with the charity

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over its motives.

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The problem is that Intel has its own cheap laptop aimed at the developing world. In fact,

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its classmate computer is being trialled at another Nigerian school. But the founder of

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One Laptop per Child says Intel was telling governments not to buy his computer.

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They would go in even after we had signed contracts and try and persuade government

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officials to scrap their contract and sign a contract with them instead. That's not

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a partnership. And it just happened time and time and time again. And each time it happened,

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they said they'd correct their ways. And it's a little bit like cheating on your spouse

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or alcoholism or something you just can't eventually fix.

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Earlier, Intel's boss had one word for that kind of charge.

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Hogwash.

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And he says his company has a perfect right to make its own cheap laptop.

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The premise that we began with and actually the premise we divorced over is that there's

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no one solution. No one company, no one solution has a monopoly on kids. And ideas that serve

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kids ought to be embraced and not rejected.

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One Laptop per Child has been struggling to get governments to invest in its computers.

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Now it's battling a giant corporation over just who should bring computing to the developing

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world. Rory Captain Jones, BBC News, Las Vegas.