Intel enters wearables:"The Intel Enigma"

[witeken]

Of course it's about time to market also: Intel does not have an entry level part today. If they hadn't done the contra-revenue, they wouldn't have sold this many tablets.

"The first one will be 3G, the next one will be LTE. Step two: we'll really get the advantage, because remember: we're pragmatic, but we're also driven to if it computes, it computes best with Intel. Then the next thing you wanna do? You wanna move that inside. So as we exit 15, you'll see SoFIA move from the outside foundry to the inside, at 14nm. Now you have: an entry level part, fully integrated, 3G, LTE, with IA, on 14nm. Something nobody else on the world will be able to compete against."

 

[Phynaz]

Clearly you havent seen this, its all about cost not time to market.

That doesn't say what you think it does.

 

[AtenRa]

That doesn't say what you think it does.

Enlighten us then, what does it say ??

 

[dahorns]

Enlighten us then, what does it say ??

That SoFIA was designed as a mid/low-end SoC from the word go. Bay-Trail wasn't. Thus the BOM delta.

 

[positivedoppler]

They're bringing innovation to the market. The MICA is a collaboration with Opening Ceremony.

MICA in all likelihood will be a laughable failure for several reason.

1. It's a glorified pager. It offers nothing additional to what a smartphone already provides. It nowhere near as powerful as actual smart watches.

2. It targets a very small market. Wealthy females who are willing to deal with electronics. Let that sink in for awhile.

3. Since it's more of a fashion accessory than a smart watch, women you know will want to match it to certain outfits. It's not a wear all for every occasion. Not a very useful pager if it only goes with certain outfits.

4. I can see enough comments and review on the internet calling those things fugly already. I don't think that's good for an item that's more of a fashion accessory than an electronic gizmo.

5. Battery life is only 2 days. Can you imagine these handful of wealthy females who like electronic gadgets willing to spend the time plugging it in every night in addition to your cell phone? I know only a small handful of people now who has smart watches and they bitch about having to plug those in.

 

[kimmel]

2. It targets a very small market. Wealthy females who are willing to deal with electronics. Let that sink in for awhile.

A better market than sexist know it all men who post on forums.

 

[VirtualLarry]

A better market than sexist know it all men who post on forums.

Oh really? My mom doesn't even know to shut off a laptop before putting it in a case. Or how to use an internet search engine.

I would say that their target market is female CEOs of tech companies, however few that may be.

The number of females that LIKE "electronic gadgets", IS a small market. Non-zero, to be certain, but certainly smaller than the market of men that like "electronic gadgets". That's not sexist, it's just fact.

 

[Nothingness]

FWIW Intel MICA is running an ARM CPU.

 

[Idontcare]

Oh really? My mom doesn't even know to shut off a laptop before putting it in a case. Or how to use an internet search engine.

I would say that their target market is female CEOs of tech companies, however few that may be.

The number of females that LIKE "electronic gadgets", IS a small market. Non-zero, to be certain, but certainly smaller than the market of men that like "electronic gadgets". That's not sexist, it's just fact.

Fact?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Fact?

Ok, "facts" as I see them, from personal observation.

 

[itsmydamnation]

Fact?

anyone who's married knows its fact.....

i want a new set of amp valves, she want new curtains.... etc


I am still bemused how the intel brigade here think that companies are going to hitch their boat to intel, people who enjoy margins ( not intel OEM's) dont want to race other intel OEM's to the bottom. Until intel changes there approach to the market non of the big guys will bite unless there products are twice as good, which there not.

The internet of everything is nothing more then a bet, one im willing to bet never really happens.

 

[mrmt]

Intel is accustomed to margins around 65%.

And why do you think Intel couldn't adapt to a, let's say, 35% margin?

 

[witeken]

MICA in all likelihood will be a laughable failure for several reason.

It's just one example of Intel's more pragmatic and all-inclusive approach. You could watch the CES14 presentation to get a few more example.

 

[NTMBK]

MICA may fail, but at least Intel are trying. It's good that they're trying out different products in different markets- fail early, fail often, and eventually you will hit on the one killer product. They just need one iPhone level success to justify years of MICA-level failures.

 

[Nothingness]

MICA may fail, but at least Intel are trying. It's good that they're trying out different products in different markets- fail early, fail often, and eventually you will hit on the one killer product. They just need one iPhone level success to justify years of MICA-level failures.

Do they really want to be an end-user product designer as Apple? Too much vertical integration might frighten their (historical or not) potential customers for SoC/CPU.

 

[witeken]

I couldn't find reviews, but this is an interesting article about the Mica: For Opening Ceremony and Intel’s MICA Smart Bracelet, Beauty Beats Brains

“Our woman doesn’t want to scream smart bracelet,” Mr. Leon said. “She didn’t want to announce to the world that, ‘Hey, I’m into the tech world!’ It’s her little secret. She could go into meetings, without her phone, and still be able to do things. The first thing that really came out of this is that we wanted a screen that was hidden on the back side.”

Otherwise, Mr. Leon said, the bracelet looks just like a piece of jewelry. “Semiprecious stones, real pearls, obsidian, water snake quality, different things,” he said. They got their curved screen, too.

And what does the phone do? It receives text messages and emails. It’s loaded with Yelp reviews of nearby restaurants. It notifies you when there’s a meeting (and can sync with Google calendar and Facebook events).

“It was a big learning curve for both of the parties, I must tell you,” said Aysegul Ildeniz, a vice president at Intel.

“People aren’t going to give up their phones,” Ms. Lim said. “This has to be a complement.”

Mr. Leon said the experience went well enough that he’s going to take a crack at this again.

“We’re just at the tipping point of what this is,” he said, referring to wearable devices. “Even for us, we know we’ll be working on more projects like this. This isn’t the last.”

 

[oobydoobydoo]

Intel MICA design team: "I'm telling you guys, we even glued real pearls to it! It's like, way reflective. Women will love it! Now to find one and see what it's opinion is..."

 

[NTMBK]

Do they really want to be an end-user product designer as Apple? Too much vertical integration might frighten their (historical or not) potential customers for SoC/CPU.

They don't need to keep selling it directly to customers- I think the basic idea is to prove the market exists by taking risks that the OEMs won't, and once it is a proven concept step aside and let the OEMs take over.

 

[Nothingness]

They don't need to keep selling it directly to customers- I think the basic idea is to prove the market exists by taking risks that the OEMs won't, and once it is a proven concept step aside and let the OEMs take over.

Agreed, but if they get, as you wrote, "an Iphone level success" how will OEM react? They'd have far passed the point of proof of concept.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Intel MICA design team: "I'm telling you guys, we even glued real pearls to it! It's like, way reflective. Women will love it! Now to find one and see what it's opinion is..."

You think the target consumers like 99% of iDevice users would actually give a rat's ass to what's the chip inside?

 

[kimmel]

Intel MICA design team: "I'm telling you guys, we even glued real pearls to it! It's like, way reflective. Women will love it! Now to find one and see what it's opinion is..."

I know you didn't actually pay attention to any facts and just like to make up hypothetical situations but the external design was done by opening ceremony, not by Intel.

 

[NTMBK]

Agreed, but if they get, as you wrote, "an Iphone level success" how will OEM react? They'd have far passed the point of proof of concept.

Spin off the business unit which makes the new product and sell it to an OEM? *shrug*

 

[Nothingness]

Spin off the business unit which makes the new product and sell it to an OEM? *shrug*

Like it

 

[oobydoobydoo]

I know you didn't actually pay attention to any facts and just like to make up hypothetical situations but the external design was done by opening ceremony, not by Intel.

Interesting! It looks like Intel already has somebody to blame for when this invariably fails miserably, now at least they won't have to integrate the MICA team into their PC group just to hide their failures and instead they can blame somebody else.

 

[oobydoobydoo]

You think the target consumers like 99% of iDevice users would actually give a rat's ass to what's the chip inside?

Apple has the best mobile CPU on the market, but I'm sure you knew that, seeing as this is a tech site...


Really amazing to see the ignorance displayed by forum members here regarding anything made by Apple. Every time it's brought up you have some super smart guy ^(lol) show up and say "iPhone owners don't care about CPU power". If that's the case, then I guess Andoid users don't care about CPU either, and windows users care the LEAST of all because Intel hasn't even improved 50% in the last 5 years.