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Intel Has Axed the Group Working on Fitness Trackers and Health Wearables (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the no-thanks,-wearables dept.

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.

62 comments

  1. Nothing of Value was Lost by bigdady92 · · Score: 1

    move along. Apple is 'winning'.

    --
    Wheel of Time: Book by Book and Sumview (summary review) Bigdady92 style: http://bigdady92.blogspot.com/
    1. Re:Nothing of Value was Lost by Anonymous Coward · · 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.

    2. Re:Nothing of Value was Lost by cunina · · Score: 1

      Fitness trackers don't work. There's a large body of research that demonstrates how useless they are. They don't provide actionable information and they aren't particularly motivational. As the previous poster pointed out, the fine-grained data just don't help. Blood pressure and weight are what you need to record every day, and those only once a day.

    3. Re:Nothing of Value was Lost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That would make you an exception, not the norm. Don't confuse your personal anecdotes with reality. The reality is that normal people really couldn't give a rat's ass in general. It's just nothing but information overload to them, from devices that are to begin with just fashion statements.

    4. Re:Nothing of Value was Lost by skids · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      Someone had to do it.
    5. Re:Nothing of Value was Lost by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      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.

    6. Re:Nothing of Value was Lost by 0123456 · · 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.

    7. Re:Nothing of Value was Lost by 0123456 · · 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.

  2. I axe you once... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...and I axe you again.

  3. Another fad bites the dust. by Anonymous Coward · · 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.

    1. Re:Another fad bites the dust. by sycodon · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    2. Re:Another fad bites the dust. by David_Hart · · Score: 1

      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 remove, with no discomfort. The best way to do this is to build it into clothing. Then it becomes accessible to everyone. The brains can be in your mobile device that communicates wirelessly with the sensors.

    3. Re: Another fad bites the dust. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I stopped using my Garmin vivosmart, cause they made some software change so that it would only sync to BT if you were running the Garmin app. I was using it as a pseudo smart watch, but once that baloney happened, it went into a drawer.

  4. I'm disappointed... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    If I could find it in my junk box, I would proudly wear an 80186 processor that I pulled from an IBM Token Ring card. Everyone knows about the 8086 and the 80286, but 80186 and the Tandy 2000 was long forgotten.

    1. Re:I'm disappointed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I shall mail you one.

    2. Re: I'm disappointed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      TBH I don't think it would fit around your wrist. That thing would look like a pin head on your wrist.

      #truth.

    3. Re: I'm disappointed... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      I don't think it would fit around your wrist.

      It's way too big. Hence, a bed sheet.

  5. all hands on desk to beat AMD! by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    all hands on desk to beat AMD!

  6. Idea for Intel: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Make computer chips... that are EDIBLE.

    I know I would buy a bag of Intel Cores if they were filled with delicious potatoes. Or...

    A) A bag of Cores: Potato Chips
    B) A bag of Xeons: Corn Chips
    C) A bag of Atoms: Pork Skin Chips
    D) A bag of Pentiums: All of the above, but fried in Olestra

    1. Re:Idea for Intel: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      D) A bag of Pentiums: All of the above, but fried in Olestra

      Seriously?

      Am I the only person on /. old enough to remember when Pentiums were incapable of performing certain mathematical functions? When Pentiums would literally shit the bed when presented with certain tasks? The way humans did when they ate food made with Olestra?

      At least I get the joke, even if none of the children here do.

    2. Re:Idea for Intel: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those 5-Volt Pentiums on dead-end motherboards that were quickly replaced by 486 DX/4 100 and Pentium 75 and 90? Big deal indeed.

  7. Their own worst enemy. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, 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.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:Their own worst enemy. by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

      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.

    2. Re:Their own worst enemy. by networkBoy · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
    3. Re:Their own worst enemy. by PCM2 · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
    4. Re:Their own worst enemy. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      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 into the server market.

      Can't really blame 'em for throwing up their hands and giving the market what it asks for.

      Except they didn't do that. What the market wanted was better support and to do that they had to be more open. Their refusal resulted in the death of Itantium.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    5. Re:Their own worst enemy. by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      ARM is a cutthroat market, it is understandable that Intel doesn't want to play in this field.
      Qualcomm, Samsung, Apple, Mediatek, Nvidia ... all produce low power ARM chips. Entering this market would result in a price war and it is the last thing Intel wants.
      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.

  8. Fad... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 2

    ...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.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    1. Re:Fad... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      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 monitoring (running, swimming, cycling etc)
      And Samsung / Apple dominate the small left over market that is the smartwatch, though even they are getting a bit of competition fitbit nowadays.

      There's really very little left in which to enter the market.

    2. Re:Fad... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If this is what these things are used for then there's a small market left to be developed : poop cameras.
      Slightly a better job to design poop cameras than carrying extensive manual surveys of urinal freshener tabs.

      Pros of poop cameras : you can use Microsoft Azure and Amazon cloud and machine learning algorithms to potentially save zillions lives.
      Cons of poop cameras : the military industrial complex will download computed poop diagnosis data so as to carry out swatting with black helicopters and paramilitary attacks when the target is weaker.

  9. Intel == Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    when it comes to new products outside their core. They staff 'em up and pump out stuff for 2-3 years, then shut them down w/o regret.

    In Intel's case, the initial motivation always seems to be "sell a lot more chips!" Maybe, but they lack the UX expertise of a consumer-oriented company.

  10. Fad = dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    VR, AR, and 'AI' are next. Dear Silicon Valley: please stop chasing fads to make a buck, stop hyping fads, and stop beta testing in the market. By all means, continue to explore, but give us useful innovations that are backed by sound real-world testing, don't ask us to invest in your science fair projects, life is not high school and we we are not you parents, and there is no magic formula (no Eureka! Moment is coming for you. You aren't that brilliant to begin with. Money is not an indication of value). Most modern tech isn't worth a personal investment, and that's pathetic with the level of resources available in the world today.

  11. Could have seen this coming a mile away by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 2

    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.

    1. Re:Could have seen this coming a mile away by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      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.

  12. WTF is the point of those things? by known_coward_69 · · Score: 1

    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.

    1. Re:WTF is the point of those things? by avandesande · · Score: 1

      To provide distraction from the actual core of fitness which is hard work? You can buy something instead of actually exercising or what I call 'virtue purchasing'.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    2. Re:WTF is the point of those things? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      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

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:WTF is the point of those things? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      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, improve your body's efficiency or anything else positive*.

      *each one of those are achieved by stressing your body in different ways which can be done most efficiently by ... you guessed it ... knowing what your speed, duration and heart-rate is while training.

      Not to mention you're ignoring a whole world of additional information provided that further helps when training such as gait, imbalance, vertical oscillation, if you're cycling cadence, or if you have a home trainer the power.

    4. Re:WTF is the point of those things? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      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. That is the fitness tracker for love making, and it is also a vibrating cockring.

    5. Re:WTF is the point of those things? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For a runner, it's not particularly useful. A phone with a GPS will do most of it. Then again, not everyone is a runner.

      I'm a cyclist. For me, knowing my heart rate is pretty important. Knowing how hard I'm pushing on a segment lets me know what I need to focus on in training. Knowing my resting heart rate lets me know how well I'm doing overall. It's probably the single easiest way to keep track of my overall progress; it certainly is the easiest/cheapest way to compare myself to the pros. My watch has heart rate tracking built in. It has GPS logging. It will dump all the info of my rides to Strava. And it's more or less invisible. It doesn't weigh much.

      It's not the only way to do this. Most advanced bike specific gps systems will do this too. Most of them will do quite a bit more (like reading cadence sensors and power meters). But it's a compact all-in-one solution.

    6. Re:WTF is the point of those things? by The+Grim+Reefer · · 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.

    7. Re:WTF is the point of those things? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    8. Re:WTF is the point of those things? by networkBoy · · Score: 1

      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/time measurement of peak to rest

      Of course you can do nearly all those manually with the same effectiveness and you really don't need to *constantly* monitor any of them. Maybe once a month checks is plenty.

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
    9. Re:WTF is the point of those things? by avandesande · · Score: 1

      I used to road race and used HRM etc and you have to work extremely hard to start seeing a reduction in resting heart rate, probably useless for 99% of people that are voluntarily exercising. Anyone doing elite fitness probably aren't going to be using the consumer stuff anyway.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    10. Re:WTF is the point of those things? by bobm · · Score: 1

      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...

      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.

    11. Re:WTF is the point of those things? by networkBoy · · Score: 1

      the reason for getting the resting rate is just to have something to count down to from the active rate.

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
    12. Re:WTF is the point of those things? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      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?

    13. Re:WTF is the point of those things? by 0123456 · · 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.

    14. Re:WTF is the point of those things? by The+Grim+Reefer · · 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.

    15. Re:WTF is the point of those things? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      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.

  13. OUCH! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They could have just fired the guys. No need to kill them with an axe!

    1. Re:OUCH! by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      Intel takes their non-compete clauses very seriously.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
  14. Sleep Tracking by Anonymous Coward · · 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 ALSO abandoned MS Band 2 when I couldn't find a reasonably priced band for my Basis equivalent to the original. It was almost as good, but it required three warranty replacements. After the third, I got tired of it and stored the device, which had abysmal battery life. Now I just manually track my sleep.

  15. The Reason is Simple by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 2

    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.

    1. Re:The Reason is Simple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      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.

      Is Fitbit "successful"?

      Fitbit: A Look Into Deteriorating Financials...

      Okay, if you say so...

    2. Re:The Reason is Simple by 0123456 · · 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, talking to a smartphone app, rather than a dedicated device.

  16. Cutting the cheese by Darinbob · · Score: 1

    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...