5 ms·

Intel Acquires Basis Watch

54 points by kyledlloyd 13y ago

rd108 13y ago
Congrats Basis!
drakaal 13y ago
Intel is clearly looking at wearable and embedded spaces. This seems like a lot to pay for something that doesn't have the install base of Fitbit, or Fuel. I can't imagine basis had any tech that Intel couldn't replicate, and this seems like too much for talent acquisition. Not what I would drop $100M on if I was Intel.
- lnanek2 13y ago
  Seems cheap for a company with 18B cash in hand and wanting to expand their hardware offerings. They've been pouring tons of money into gesture tracking web cams, x86 clones of Arduino, etc. all sorts of things.
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  Word is Intel has one rule, and only one rule: Keep the fab full The rest of the company exists to feed the fab. So it doesn't surprise me, the lengths they are going in an effort to get Intel silicon into more devices (and more types of devices), especially after they missed the smartphone wave.
HaloZero 13y ago
Damn't, that was my favorite watch on the market. Hopefully they support export of data :(
akuma73 13y ago
Intel - where startups go to die.
csense 13y ago
Wearable computing. Cutting edge technology. Wait a minute... [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_%26_Watch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_%26_Watch
- nekopa 13y ago
  Did you mean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelsonic_Industries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelsonic_Industries ?
PhantomGremlin 13y ago
Intel's been in the watch business before [0]. It didn't end well then, it probably won't end well now. Hey, at least they didn't spend $19 billion for a texting app. [0] http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshb/320868833/?rb=1 http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshb/320868833/?rb=1
- jey 13y ago
  FB didn't spend $19B for a texting app. They spent $19B for a huge userbase in parts of the world where FB doesn't have much market share. (And one with considerable network effects leading to significant switching costs.) I expect there to be some kind of onboarding of the WhatsApp customer base onto FB as smartphones get adopted in those parts of the world.
  - PhantomGremlin 13y ago
    I know it was more than a texting app. Since this story was about Intel not Facebook I probably shouldn't have thrown that line in. But here's why I did: I'm sure there are all kinds of arguments, explanations, justifications, rationalizations (call it what you will) for FB's purchase of WhatsApp. But my gut feel is that it's not worth paying 1000x TTM revenues for it. Admittedly a large part of the price was in stock not cash. Same with Intel's purchase. My gut feel is they shouldn't be buying a watch company. Intel has an abysmal track record with acquisitions. I think it's a sign that they're desperately flailing around. I'd rather see them try to become a world class foundry. They certainly have the technology and expertise, and it's much closer to the CEO's background. I.e. "stick to the knitting".
blackdogie 13y ago
How does the Basis rank against the other smart watches out there ? I see it's priced higher, $199, where others come in at $100 - $150. The one difference I see is that it can do heart rate monitoring, and a lot of the competition can't (yet). It's nice to see that they have an API to export your data too.
- pisarzp 13y ago
  It also measures your perspiration. They focused on gamification and achievements you can unlock ("slept full 8 hours" etc). However it lacks any wireless connectivity, so you need to plug to your computer to download data every day. I thought it's the most interesting of all smart devices, but I was looking for next gen which hopefully would be wireless and smaller.
  - faulkner 13y ago
    If you're holding out for wireless connectivity you can buy the current model - it already has bluetooth.
  - rmc 13y ago
    > However it lacks any wireless connectivity, so you need to plug to your computer to download data every day. Recent ones sync automatically over bluetooth with an smartphone
  - tehwalrus 13y ago
    they all came with bluetooth AFAIK - just took a (always wired) firmware upgrade to the early ones to activate it. I regularly sync mine with my iPhone.
- wonnage 13y ago
  FYI, there's no API. Heart rate monitoring is a bit of a sham, if you're looking to use it during exercise. It's designed to gather more of an average rate throughout the day than give an accurate reading while you're exercising. The Basis tracks sleep without you having to put it in sleep mode (e.g jawbone UP), which is pretty handy. They recently added some features that attempt to recognize walking/running/biking automatically ("BodyIQ" is the marketing name). I found it oddly useful for seeing how long it took me to walk places. Coolest feature: if you rotate your wrist quickly (as you would to look at a watch), the face lights up automatically. Bluetooth sync works well with Android, pretty useless with iPhone (you have to keep the app open and phone awake or it tends to be flaky). Basically I like the watch, but for weird reasons - the health tracking isn't really that much better than others, but there are little surprises here and there that make it useful for me. YMMV, and I really don't think seeing how many steps you took in a day will ever be life-changing for anyone.
CmonDev 13y ago
I still haven't forgiven them the Project Offset death: http://kotaku.com/5577979/intels-project-offset-game-cancelled http://kotaku.com/5577979/intels-project-offset-game-cancell...
webwielder 13y ago
Can someone explain to me Intel's continued fascination with being a consumer company? From constant B2C advertising to their TV and wearable endeavors, they seem to be fixated on being something they're not. Is it corporate vanity? Is there a strategic motivation? If so, have any of their consumer endeavors ever actually borne fruit? I guess it's reminiscent of Microsoft, who don't seem to understand that Windows was not successful because consumers liked it, but because businesses bought it.
- PhantomGremlin 13y ago
  I think Intel's "strategic motivation" is simple. The US stock market demands ever increasing revenues and earnings from a company. In order to achieve that, often companies do something that the great Peter Lynch called "diworsification" [0]: The term was coined by legendary investor Peter Lynch in his book, "One Up Wall Street," where he suggested that a business that diversifies too widely, risks destroying their original business, because management time, energy and resources are diverted from the original investment. Without continuing earnings and revenue growth, a company is "dead" to much of Wall Street. I just posted another comment as to what IMO Intel should be doing instead. They should "stick to the knitting". E.g. they could try to become a world class foundry. They've got the fabs, they've got thousands of great engineers. I guess that's just not as sexy as a watch that also measures your perspiration. [0] http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/diworsification.asp http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/diworsification.asp
  - webwielder 13y ago
    It's a shame that the one time event of going public dooms a company for perpetuity to being subject to the unreasonable demands of shareholders, so often ironically resulting in the downfall of the very value that was supposed to rise as a result of said demands.
    - zimpenfish 13y ago
      It's even more ironic that companies which make astounding profits (cf Apple) and largely ignore the whims of shareholders (cf Apple) are constantly berated for this.
mahyarm 13y ago
I wonder if this will make an API less or more likely. #1 complaint with the watch. Simple stuff like wifi weight scale and runkeeper cardio integration would be pretty nice! Otherwise congrats to the company!
- rmc 13y ago
  There's no offical API, but you can figure out the HTTP calls to make. My husband wrote some Nagios checks for himself. We just gotta pay attention to the "heart rate is CRITICAL" alerts now :P http://tomsalmon.eu/2013/12/data-download-and-nagios-plugin-for-mybasis/ http://tomsalmon.eu/2013/12/data-download-and-nagios-plugin-...
rmc 13y ago
My husband has one and wrote some Nagios checks which download the data over the web. He's basically put himself on Nagios. We just gotta pay attention to the "heart rate is CRITICAL" alerts now :P http://tomsalmon.eu/2013/12/data-download-and-nagios-plugin-for-mybasis/ http://tomsalmon.eu/2013/12/data-download-and-nagios-plugin-...
- matznerd 13y ago
  Are you a bot or something? You posted the exact same comment 4 times.
  - rmc 13y ago
    Nope, just copy & pasted the same comment to promote it, in all the places it's relevant.
    - general_failure 13y ago
      The bots are getting better and better!
matznerd 13y ago
I predict wearables, specifically smartwatches, are the next huge consumer category. The tipping point to mainstream will occur when the fashion of the watches catches up with the technology.
tehwalrus 13y ago
I really like my Basis smartwarch - I've only not worn it about 5 days in the last 6 months (since it arrived). I hope they keep the web software running for years to come, the thing is very cloud dependant!

54 points by kyledlloyd 13y ago

rd108 13y ago

Congrats Basis!

Intel is clearly looking at wearable and embedded spaces. This seems like a lot to pay for something that doesn't have the install base of Fitbit, or Fuel. I can't imagine basis had any tech that Intel couldn't replicate, and this seems like too much for talent acquisition. Not what I would drop $100M on if I was Intel.

lnanek2 13y ago
Seems cheap for a company with 18B cash in hand and wanting to expand their hardware offerings. They've been pouring tons of money into gesture tracking web cams, x86 clones of Arduino, etc. all sorts of things.
sliverstorm 13y ago
Word is Intel has one rule, and only one rule: Keep the fab full The rest of the company exists to feed the fab. So it doesn't surprise me, the lengths they are going in an effort to get Intel silicon into more devices (and more types of devices), especially after they missed the smartphone wave.

HaloZero 13y ago

Damn't, that was my favorite watch on the market. Hopefully they support export of data :(

akuma73 13y ago

Intel - where startups go to die.

csense 13y ago

Wearable computing. Cutting edge technology. Wait a minute... [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_%26_Watch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_%26_Watch

nekopa 13y ago
Did you mean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelsonic_Industries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelsonic_Industries ?

PhantomGremlin 13y ago

Intel's been in the watch business before [0]. It didn't end well then, it probably won't end well now. Hey, at least they didn't spend $19 billion for a texting app. [0] http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshb/320868833/?rb=1 http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshb/320868833/?rb=1

jey 13y ago
FB didn't spend $19B for a texting app. They spent $19B for a huge userbase in parts of the world where FB doesn't have much market share. (And one with considerable network effects leading to significant switching costs.) I expect there to be some kind of onboarding of the WhatsApp customer base onto FB as smartphones get adopted in those parts of the world.
- PhantomGremlin 13y ago
  I know it was more than a texting app. Since this story was about Intel not Facebook I probably shouldn't have thrown that line in. But here's why I did: I'm sure there are all kinds of arguments, explanations, justifications, rationalizations (call it what you will) for FB's purchase of WhatsApp. But my gut feel is that it's not worth paying 1000x TTM revenues for it. Admittedly a large part of the price was in stock not cash. Same with Intel's purchase. My gut feel is they shouldn't be buying a watch company. Intel has an abysmal track record with acquisitions. I think it's a sign that they're desperately flailing around. I'd rather see them try to become a world class foundry. They certainly have the technology and expertise, and it's much closer to the CEO's background. I.e. "stick to the knitting".

blackdogie 13y ago

How does the Basis rank against the other smart watches out there ? I see it's priced higher, $199, where others come in at $100 - $150. The one difference I see is that it can do heart rate monitoring, and a lot of the competition can't (yet). It's nice to see that they have an API to export your data too.

pisarzp 13y ago
It also measures your perspiration. They focused on gamification and achievements you can unlock ("slept full 8 hours" etc). However it lacks any wireless connectivity, so you need to plug to your computer to download data every day. I thought it's the most interesting of all smart devices, but I was looking for next gen which hopefully would be wireless and smaller.
- faulkner 13y ago
  If you're holding out for wireless connectivity you can buy the current model - it already has bluetooth.
- rmc 13y ago
  > However it lacks any wireless connectivity, so you need to plug to your computer to download data every day. Recent ones sync automatically over bluetooth with an smartphone
- tehwalrus 13y ago
  they all came with bluetooth AFAIK - just took a (always wired) firmware upgrade to the early ones to activate it. I regularly sync mine with my iPhone.
wonnage 13y ago
FYI, there's no API. Heart rate monitoring is a bit of a sham, if you're looking to use it during exercise. It's designed to gather more of an average rate throughout the day than give an accurate reading while you're exercising. The Basis tracks sleep without you having to put it in sleep mode (e.g jawbone UP), which is pretty handy. They recently added some features that attempt to recognize walking/running/biking automatically ("BodyIQ" is the marketing name). I found it oddly useful for seeing how long it took me to walk places. Coolest feature: if you rotate your wrist quickly (as you would to look at a watch), the face lights up automatically. Bluetooth sync works well with Android, pretty useless with iPhone (you have to keep the app open and phone awake or it tends to be flaky). Basically I like the watch, but for weird reasons - the health tracking isn't really that much better than others, but there are little surprises here and there that make it useful for me. YMMV, and I really don't think seeing how many steps you took in a day will ever be life-changing for anyone.

CmonDev 13y ago

I still haven't forgiven them the Project Offset death: http://kotaku.com/5577979/intels-project-offset-game-cancelled http://kotaku.com/5577979/intels-project-offset-game-cancell...

webwielder 13y ago

Can someone explain to me Intel's continued fascination with being a consumer company? From constant B2C advertising to their TV and wearable endeavors, they seem to be fixated on being something they're not. Is it corporate vanity? Is there a strategic motivation? If so, have any of their consumer endeavors ever actually borne fruit? I guess it's reminiscent of Microsoft, who don't seem to understand that Windows was not successful because consumers liked it, but because businesses bought it.

PhantomGremlin 13y ago
I think Intel's "strategic motivation" is simple. The US stock market demands ever increasing revenues and earnings from a company. In order to achieve that, often companies do something that the great Peter Lynch called "diworsification" [0]: The term was coined by legendary investor Peter Lynch in his book, "One Up Wall Street," where he suggested that a business that diversifies too widely, risks destroying their original business, because management time, energy and resources are diverted from the original investment. Without continuing earnings and revenue growth, a company is "dead" to much of Wall Street. I just posted another comment as to what IMO Intel should be doing instead. They should "stick to the knitting". E.g. they could try to become a world class foundry. They've got the fabs, they've got thousands of great engineers. I guess that's just not as sexy as a watch that also measures your perspiration. [0] http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/diworsification.asp http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/diworsification.asp
- webwielder 13y ago
  It's a shame that the one time event of going public dooms a company for perpetuity to being subject to the unreasonable demands of shareholders, so often ironically resulting in the downfall of the very value that was supposed to rise as a result of said demands.
  - zimpenfish 13y ago
    It's even more ironic that companies which make astounding profits (cf Apple) and largely ignore the whims of shareholders (cf Apple) are constantly berated for this.

mahyarm 13y ago

I wonder if this will make an API less or more likely. #1 complaint with the watch. Simple stuff like wifi weight scale and runkeeper cardio integration would be pretty nice! Otherwise congrats to the company!

rmc 13y ago
There's no offical API, but you can figure out the HTTP calls to make. My husband wrote some Nagios checks for himself. We just gotta pay attention to the "heart rate is CRITICAL" alerts now :P http://tomsalmon.eu/2013/12/data-download-and-nagios-plugin-for-mybasis/ http://tomsalmon.eu/2013/12/data-download-and-nagios-plugin-...

rmc 13y ago

My husband has one and wrote some Nagios checks which download the data over the web. He's basically put himself on Nagios. We just gotta pay attention to the "heart rate is CRITICAL" alerts now :P http://tomsalmon.eu/2013/12/data-download-and-nagios-plugin-for-mybasis/ http://tomsalmon.eu/2013/12/data-download-and-nagios-plugin-...

matznerd 13y ago
Are you a bot or something? You posted the exact same comment 4 times.
- rmc 13y ago
  Nope, just copy & pasted the same comment to promote it, in all the places it's relevant.
  - general_failure 13y ago
    The bots are getting better and better!

matznerd 13y ago

I predict wearables, specifically smartwatches, are the next huge consumer category. The tipping point to mainstream will occur when the fashion of the watches catches up with the technology.

tehwalrus 13y ago

I really like my Basis smartwarch - I've only not worn it about 5 days in the last 6 months (since it arrived). I hope they keep the web software running for years to come, the thing is very cloud dependant!