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Intel kills Consumer Electronics
bribecka writes "Saw this on CNet News.com: Intel has decided to phase out its consumer electronics division. This division was responsible for digital cameras, digital audio players, and other gadgets. " Not really surprising considering the way things are these days.
Head's up /.
The title of this story is "Intel kills Consumer Electronics"
There is a magazine called Consumer Electronics, who may not be too happy about that title. I actually thought that Intel somehow did the magazine in.
I highly advise that the title be changed to something like "Intel Kills Consumer Electronics Division".
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In my opinion, Intel was TERRIBLE at making and marketing consumer products. They would sell a product with important details still buggy.
For example, I bought an Intel computer video camera. There was software to record videos, but there was no way to compress them so that the videos could be sent by email.
There was software to record audio, but there was no way to pause the recording. Each period of recording had to be a separate file.
Intel sold a PCMCIA network adapter that didn't work with Sony laptops. There was a piece of paper in the box that said to visit a particular web site. The site said that the adapter did not work with laptops using a particular chipset. The main site for the product did not mention this, however, and there was no link between the two..
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This is actually a really good point. I've wondered myself why companies that no longer sell/support a product don't just open it up wide. THis goes for software as well as hardware specs. Is there really that much competitive IP tied up in a discontinued product that they can't let it out?
One reason may be that the product may use some component that the company doesn't want to open up even own. For example, a piece of software may depend on some proprietary library which the company doesn't own (and, thus, doesn't have the authorization to open up), and opens itself up to legal trouble if it opens up. A hardware component may be partially designed by another firm and again the company is opening itself to lawsuits if it releases the information. In these cases it is very expensive to research whether or not a product can be opened, and this is a very difficult process if it wasn't originally designed to be open.