Intel Has Axed the Group Working on Fitness Trackers and Health Wearables (cnbc.com) 62
Intel has axed the division that worked on health wearables, including fitness trackers, CNBC is reporting citing a source. From the report: The company has been slowly de-emphasizing its own line of wearables for the past several years, and has not mentioned wearables on its earnings calls since 2014. In November, TechCrunch reported that the company was planning to take a step back from the business after its acquisition of the Basis fitness watch didn't pan out as expected. Intel denied at the time that it was stepping back. But a source told CNBC that the chip maker in fact let go about 80 percent of the Basis group in November. Many of the people were given the opportunity to relocate to other parts of the business. About two weeks ago, Intel completely eliminated the group, this person said. The company's New Technologies Group, which looks at cutting-edge business areas, is now focusing on augmented reality, another source told CNBC.
Nothing of Value was Lost (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Nobody is winning. Turns out nobody really cares about fine grained details about their health past the "gee whiz look at this!" stage of product ownership.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
True. If normal people cared about their health, they wouldn't be 200lbs overweight and stuffing themselves with carbs.
But not all of us are like that.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd care, if these did something other than report your heart rate and location to a cloud service. I'd love to monitor actual data that matters. I'd also not like it to go to the cloud.
Re: (Score:2)
Fitness trackers are great for one thing : notifications.
I have a MiBand 1 and the vibrations can easily be felt in any condition. It can be used as a silent alarm clock too (it can wake me up).
I consider the actual fitness tracking more like a gimmick.
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah, the mostly-silent alarms on my Fitbit are really useful. And parcel-tracking and a few other odds and ends where the notifications are short enough to be displayed on the screen rather than having to take my phone out and read them.
Another fad bites the dust. (Score:1)
Yep, yet another fad is biting the dust... like buying yourself that gym membership for Christmas, going reliably for a month, and then when Valentine's day rolls around, you get bored with it and quit.
Re: (Score:2)
Is it really a fad or market failure?
Of is it a manifestation of what we've seen i the auto industry where marketing executives kill products that aren't theirs because...it wasn't theirs....like almost happened to the Ford Mustang.
Re: (Score:2)
Is it really a fad or market failure?
Of is it a manifestation of what we've seen i the auto industry where marketing executives kill products that aren't theirs because...it wasn't theirs....like almost happened to the Ford Mustang.
In my opinion, its a combination of a product failure and a fad.
The fad was one born of the health craze. Look, you can monitor your calories, heartbeat, distance, etc. It's cool and all, but you have to strap or hook this device to your body. Of course, you then find out it chafes, falls off, gets broken, gets lost, doesn't give accurate readings, etc. Then it ends up in the tech junk bin....
The product just isn't ready yet. The sensors need to be very cheap, disposable, easy to attach, and easy to re
I'm disappointed... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think it would fit around your wrist.
It's way too big. Hence, a bed sheet.
all hands on desk to beat AMD! (Score:2)
all hands on desk to beat AMD!
Their own worst enemy. (Score:4, Interesting)
Honestly, Intel is hurting itself badly by insisting on everything they make being x86, poorly documented and overpriced. Desktops are the only place that x86 even matters (due to Windows). Itantium and their IoT tanked not because it was bad but because of their own bad behavior. Intel deserves it's slow death because they have earned it by being greedy jerks who would rather sabotage the competition than make their product more accessible.
Re: (Score:2)
Intel is just in the "value" stage of Wall St. domination, it's unclear they could fix themselves even if it was clear someone there acknowledged a problem. It's all about how to sell off bits and pieces of them, or buy things that appear undervalued.
They do however have a lot of money and market share, so they will continue to be a boat-anchor for the foreseeable future.
Re: (Score:2)
A lot of us really shook our heads when Intel killed the i960 line, and even moreso when it sold off the StrongARM licence and line.
Not Paul O's smartest move.
Re: (Score:2)
ARM is a cutthroat market, it is understandable that Intel doesn't want to play in this field. ... all produce low power ARM chips. Entering this market would result in a price war and it is the last thing Intel wants.
Qualcomm, Samsung, Apple, Mediatek, Nvidia
OTOH, Intel is practically the only player in high performance CPUs now, though AMD seems to be catching up. Even Apple is putting them in their Macs.
Focusing resources on x86 and high performance computing was a smart move IMHO.
Re: (Score:2)
Itantium and their IoT tanked not because it was bad but because of their own bad behavior.
Oh? Not being backward compatible with x86 had nothing to do with it? Underestimating AMD, nothing? Can't really blame 'em for throwing up their hands and giving the market what it asks for.
Re: (Score:2)
Not being backward compatible with x86 had nothing to do with it?
Considering it was for the high-end server market, not really. The bigger issue was not helping GCC and other free compilers make a port. Intel wanted companies to use their compiler but not everyone did (it's a big hassle and that means $$$) so you ended up with a high number of companies that wouldn't support Itantium until GCC was ported. This catch 22 of "no GCC port until Itanium is in the market and no market until there is a GCC port" is what killed Itanium.
Underestimating AMD, nothing?
AMD is still trying to edge it's way int
Fad... (Score:3)
...take a step back from the business after its acquisition of the Basis fitness watch didn't pan out as expected...
Many speculators like the VC types thought this was going to be HUGE, but really, it's turned out to be more or less a "fad" and a niche market where there just isn't a market for more than one or two serious players.
Re: (Score:2)
Not a fad, but definitely a completely saturated niche market. If you don't have a fitness tracker already you're unlikely to get one. If you ever bought one, there's a good chance that it is on your wrist right now and there's little you would consider for upgrades which have anything to do with fitness.
Fitbit has basically cornered the market for anyone needing a low-cost fitness band counting steps and heartrate.
Garmin, Tomtom and the GPS crowd have cornered the market on high-end special purpose monitor
Could have seen this coming a mile away (Score:3)
Anyone who has ever bought a Nordic Track that turned into a clothes rack would have seen wearable brow-beating health monitors as a fad.
Re: (Score:2)
Nordic Track is difficult to use. It looks so easy on the videos but very tricky when you first try it out. And a few months later, still very hard to use. A stationary bike is much more sensible, there's no learning curve to it.
WTF is the point of those things? (Score:2)
I run, I use strava to log my runs and try to beat my times. Other days i'll hit the gym or do push-ups at home.
why do people care what their heart rate is 24 hours a day? or even what it is while you're running? run as fast until your lungs hurt and you feel drained for the next day or so, take a break, repeat.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That accurately describes my ex.
She'll try to buy happiness or health, rather than actually doing something about it.
As to GP, there are a couple different pulse rates that matter:
resting, moderate activity, and high activity/peak. The other thing that matters is how long it takes to go from peak to resting rate after you stop working out. I could see a wearable monitor being valuable for:
get baseline sleep rate
get average daily rate
get several samples of resting rate throughout the day
automate the sample/
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
the reason for getting the resting rate is just to have something to count down to from the active rate.
Re: (Score:2)
The point was to take money from stupid people, and it worked. This is the sort of thing that should have been a little bit of functionality added to a wristwatch and instead it spawned a whole class of useless cockrings
Re: (Score:2)
This is the sort of thing that should have been a little bit of functionality added to a wristwatch and instead it spawned a whole class of useless cockrings
Look the fitbit is not supposed to go on your cock. It's nothing more than a bit of functionality added to a wristwatch. The product you are after is the We-Vibe Verge [we-vibe.com]. That is the fitness tracker for love making, and it is also a vibrating cockring.
Re: (Score:2)
Look the fitbit is not supposed to go on your cock.
That's what they say about those silicone "bracelets" but we all know that's bullshit.
Re: (Score:2)
The point a lot of people don't know is that Intel (Basis) bought back a bunch of the watches
https://www.cnet.com/news/basi... [cnet.com]
My wife had one and really liked how it worked. It seemed to really work from our limited testing.
So Intel - bought the company and then killed the product and bought back a bunch of the already sold products.
Re: (Score:2)
why do people care what their heart rate is 24 hours a day?
They don't. But what these things also do is tell you the time. The fact that you don't need to run off and change devices for the one or two hours when you do want your heartrate monitored is a bonus.
or even what it is while you're running? run as fast until your lungs hurt and you feel drained for the next day or so
Like holy shit you no nothing about running or training. Depending on what you're trying to achieve there's a very big difference in training regime that you're going for. Running as fast as you can till your lungs hurt will likely only achieve early cardiac arrest rather that improve insurance, improve speed,
Re: (Score:1)
Running as fast as you can till your lungs hurt will likely only achieve early cardiac arrest rather that improve insurance
Well your insurance rates are certainly going to go down if you keel over from cardiac arrest. Car insurance, won't be needing that, Health insurance, nope. Life insurance, too late. Flood insurance, meh your coffin will probably float.
Re: (Score:2)
Well your insurance rates are certainly going to go down if you keel over from cardiac arrest.
Sorry I don't understand. What is this "insurance rate" thing you speak of? Is that the weird thing you Americans do where you pay to get medical attention?
Re: (Score:1)
Sorry I don't understand. What is this "insurance rate" thing you speak of? Is that the weird thing you Americans do where you pay to get medical attention?
No. That's called a co-pay, deductible, or paying out of pocket.I don't know what country you're in, but I've been treated for medical emergencies in several countries and so far none have been for free. If yours is, then you're paying for it under a different name, such as taxes.
Re: (Score:2)
I never said free. I am just mocking your ridiculous notion that someone has a variable "rate" to determine if they get medical attention.
But it's okay I get it. American's lives are only worthwhile if you deem them to not cost to much, or that they are filthy rich.
Re: (Score:1)
"why do people care what their heart rate is 24 hours a day?"
Because I'm not sixteen any more and I don't want to die playing VR games.
Plus it often gives an early indication of being sick, and, when my girlfriend is wondering whether she might be pregnant, I can use it to check whether we were shagging around ovulation time.
Re: (Score:2)
Intel takes their non-compete clauses very seriously.
Sleep Tracking (Score:1)
I bought a Basis B1 many years ago for sleep tracking. I have severe insomnia and my doctor wanted an idea of how much I was actually sleeping long term, since nothing was indicating an obvious disorder like sleep apnea. It ended up being psychiatric and it is not resolved. However, the B1 was the best sleep tracker available, and it worked wonderfully for about a year. Then Basis got bought, the SDK never arrived, data download off their site never arrived, and I lost faith. I ended up switching to the ALS
The Reason is Simple (Score:3)
FitBit and Apple own this space already, and no amount of Intel "magic" is going to get them to catch-up to those two widely disparate, but both widely successful, platforms.
Re: (Score:1)
Fitbit is successful in that market. I see far more people wearing Fitbits than Apple Watches.
Whether it's successful in absolute terms is another question. One problem is that, aside from the numerous people who say theirs fell apart, they haven't really provided any reason to upgrade, and it's hard to see what they could do. Most of the things I'd like it to track would be difficult to do with a watch.
As someone mentioned above, I think it's quite likely that the future will be sensors built into clothes,
Cutting the cheese (Score:2)
Because it's related, here's on of my favorite pics of execs cutting the cheese over Intel wearables...
https://www.tagheuer.com/en-us... [tagheuer.com]