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The IoT market is going to grow significantly and Intel drops it? Why not reboot it, after a "lessons learned" and some serious study of the e.g. Beagleboard,
by gruturo 9y ago
The IoT market is going to grow significantly and Intel drops it? Why not reboot it, after a "lessons learned" and some serious study of the e.g. Beagleboard, Pi and Arduino ecosystems, to check what works (hint: price matters. Lots of easily driven 3.3v GPIOs matter. Battery life matters. Sometimes integrated connectivity matters, if it doesn't kill price or battery life).
Have they not learned from the Xscale fiasco that dropping a soon-to-be hugely important market is not the best strategic move?
And it's not like both predictions are/were any difficult to make.
They have the technical chops to do it right, their mainstream CPUs are ample proof of that, and this sector will get a lot bigger. Their top management either lacks the balls/vision to drive the idea to success, or is acutely aware that they would never, ever be profitable in a market where the end product is under $40 (sometimes under $5).
I don't know which alternative is sadder.
- pjc50 9y agoMany big corporates, and indeed people, when faced with a choice between "give up" and "admit mistakes then learn from them", will choose "give up".
- rubyfan 9y agoWhy is it a given that Intel have to be there? It maybe be a market that they are in fact not geared toward. Just because there is a market doesn't mean they need to be there, doesn't mean they can make money and doesn't necessarily mean their core market will go away. Many times companies will try to get into new markets or channels as a hedge, just in case their cash cow goes tits up. I give them credit for seeing that it was right to bail. Closing a $700m unit and laying people off is a pretty big admission of a mistake - they just see there's no viable course correction. Giving up is sometimes the best option.
- gruturo 9y ago> Why is it a given that Intel have to be there? Because their name stands for INTegrated ELectronics and they just failed at it. > Closing a $700m unit and laying people off is a pretty big admission of a mistake - they just see there's no viable course correction. Giving up is sometimes the best option. Agreed, not disputing that, just trying to analyze the reasons behind the failure.
- mcguire 9y agoBig corporations are made of people. How many times have we seen this: an exec runs with an idea, but it doesn't pan out fast enough. Other execs then have a stick they can use to embiggen themselves at the expense of their colleague. The end result is that the idea itself is now tainted and no one will touch it.