Amidst the frenzy of Macworld and the Consumer Electronics Show, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative quietly announced Wednesday that it would cut its staff by 50 percent, cut the salaries of 32 workers, and refocus its mission.

"We are streamlining our operations this month, cutting staff by roughly 50 percent and laying out broad targets for the coming year," the company said in a blog post.

Though its focus is admirable - providing $100 laptops to children in developing nations - the OLPC program has struggled to catch on. Though it recently expanded its presence via Amazon.com, the project kicked off 2008 by losing the support of Intel.

"While we are saddened by this development, we remain firmly committed to our mission of getting laptops to children in developing countries," according to a note from OLPC founder and chairman Nicholas Negroponte.

The group's restructuring will include a focus on the development of its second-generation OLPC laptop, a no-cost connectivity program, the distribution of a million digital books, and the growth of the Sugar operating system in the community.

Meanwhile, Latin America will be spun off into a separte unit, Sub-Saharan Africa will become a major learning hub, and the Middle East, Afghanistan and Northwestern Pakistan will become a major focus, Negroponte said.

Going forward, OLPC will introduce the $0 laptop for the least developed countries, Negroponte said.

"The future brings with it some uncertainty, some difficulty, but also the excitement that comes with the rededication to a cause, and a new path that will allow us to realize the moral purpose of OLPC," Negroponte said. "I hope that each one of you will remain supportive of OLPC, and its mission of opening up a universe of knowledge to the world's poorest children living in the most remote parts of the Earth."

NComputing, a longtime critic of OLPC pushing a rival virtualization system for developing nations, said the news is proof that the OLPC "business model simply doesn't work."