Intel Wearable Dreams Laid To Rest, Division Shuttered

Just last month, Intel bid farewell to its ambitions to corner the still nascent Internet of Things (IoT) market. Now it seems that even wearables are a no go as well. Although Intel has yet to actually formally announce or even confirm that it has pt an end to both IoT and Wearable plans, the writing has been on the wall. Not only has Intel kept mum on wearables for quite some time now, an insider source says that Intel has already closed the group in charge of pushing its wearable technologies forward.

It was only like yesterday when Intel was waxing poetic about wearables and its own processor technology. However, it has actually only been four years since it made a big splash with its wearable plans. It even got some famous personalities and fashion brands to endorse Intel-powered wearables, from bracelets to to earbuds.

Since 2014, however, Intel has gone silent and hasn't even mentioned its wearables division in its earnings. According to the source, Intel let go of 80% of the group that it acquired from Basis as far back as November last year. Two weeks ago, however, Intel completely closed the group, signaling the end of that phase of Intel's obsession.

Wearables are just the latest casualty of Intel's ongoing attempts to secure a foothold in markets outside its traditional computing products. It has, in order, given up on smartphones, IoT, and, now, wearables. But it isn't completely throwing in the towel just yet.

Intel's New Technologies Group, which still does exist, is tipped to be focusing on AR instead. It is, after all, the new hot thing in computing these days. But with Apple and Google seemingly trying to push AR more towards smartphones, it remains to be seen how long Intel will be able to stick to this path this time.

SOURCE: CNBC