Wednesday, November 27th 2019
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Intel is Looking to Sell Connected Home Division
Intel is reportedly looking to sell its connected home devices division, a company unit used for designing semiconductors that enable WiFi connection in all kinds of devices and SoCs made for managing network devices like WiFi routers. Following a previous deal, where Intel sold its modem division to Apple for 1 billion USD, Intel is now looking to "get rid of" another unit that is not doing any data-centric design workload.
The Connected Home division had around 450 million USD last year in annual sales, but it seems that competition is getting good with competing offers from Broadcom Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. If the unit is potentially sold to another company, Intel could rewire its R&D funds to other groups inside the company. Additionally, it is worth to mention that a financial advisor has reportedly been hired to evaluate any possible offers that Intel receives.
Source:
Bloomberg
The Connected Home division had around 450 million USD last year in annual sales, but it seems that competition is getting good with competing offers from Broadcom Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. If the unit is potentially sold to another company, Intel could rewire its R&D funds to other groups inside the company. Additionally, it is worth to mention that a financial advisor has reportedly been hired to evaluate any possible offers that Intel receives.
22 Comments on Intel is Looking to Sell Connected Home Division
Because that is really what it needs. Right now its a weird mess of protocols and leaky equipment, overpriced for what it does and more prone to failure than simple switches and locks.
They've been hurting as of late, no secret there and now that AMD has (Once again) spanked that backside with their newest chips it's kinda looking that way to me.
I could be wrong but I woudn't doubt it either.
What do you mean by "whole house smart"? Everything controlled remotely? Is that necessary?
Intel is not trying to create a market or playing a long game. It's entering something that already exists and will only grow with time.
"Smart home" tech today is more about high-end apartments. And it's very common in this niche.
Even in less developed countries, like mine (Poland), most newly built high-end flats have a smart home system included.
It's mostly about saving energy: heating, lights and A/C if present. Sometimes they include sensors for open doors and windows.
It usually pays off in bills or insurance rates.
A typical apartment has a few heaters, few windows and single front door. So it's not a great cost to connect them. It definitely is. Look at modern offices, production plants, warehouses, mass transit, agriculture etc. They're all very "IoT" already. But they're "IoT" because it makes economical sense.
Consumer IoT will need more time to get traction, because it's mostly a luxury, not an investment. That's why we start from basic stuff that is most convincing - like smart heating.
As for buildings & structures, the material used for construction as well as design will do more than any "smart" sensor ever will. The only utility for smart homes, as far as I'm concerned, is to be somehow always connected with your devices or home! Yeah I'm not doing that & not boarding the hype train anytime soon :shadedshu:
Are there any nations other than Americans that use ceiling fans on large scale? AC is a tiny niche in Europe (in households). Mild climate makes it unnecessary. But yeah, in US and tropical Asia it's fairly common. We don't have traditional light bulbs in Europe anymore. LEDs and fluorescent lamps dominate the market. Thing is though, when everyone build from similar (good) materials, when everyone use LEDs, when everyone have eco fridges - how do you differentiate?
Because some buildings will still want to be more "eco" than the others. It's the same trend that we've seen in offices for a long time (eco classes, certificates etc).
But from a practical and financial point of view, it still makes a lot of sense. Really. Especially in places where you need heating for half a year.
And on the other hand: this is just nice tech and it makes some people feel better. That's it.
Some people are aroused by RGB. Some by Cinebench scores. And some by time-controlled heaters.
And are you trying to tell me that RGB and Cinebench have more sense than smart homes? Really? :D
This news surprises no one. About the only smart-home thing that has really penetrated the market is Amazon Echo.
Yes but there's 2 things here, 3 in reality ~ some materials while more energy efficient in a building may take a lot more energy for extraction &/or refinement than say traditional materials. So setting aside cost, they may not be the best choice if the energy costs to extract/use them outweighs the potential savings in a building or a structure. Then there's costs ~ sometimes the biggest factor in all of this.
No it really doesn't.
Yes & no ~ I assume you also have counted the energy costs for always connected, always ON devices in a smart home as compared to say a normal but equally (or more) efficient household device like a fan? The point about opening windows or shades is interesting, however as I said you don't need "smart" BS that these companies are selling you. I have a BLDC fan with timer, it can turn off in 2/4/8/12 hours using a simple remote.
Pretty sure you can do this easily with fraction of the energy costs in lots of other not so "smart" stuff at home :toast:
It's big in hacked devices, ala botnets.
The smartest app for your home is your own brain if you care to use it.
I'm not too lazy to get my ass off the couch to lock a door, turn off a light, adjust the thermostat or other things. I can do all that for free, not be paying to get spyed on or wasting money on something that can be opened (Hacked) by a lappy.
Nope - There will never be any of this "Smart" crap securing my place.
There are use cases. But they are limited, really. And still, same as ever: don't trust the packaged solution online.
What if it was all open source and connecting over a VPN? :P I find this very hard to believe to say the least. Data?
You don't have heaters in houses in US? How do keep yourself warm during Winter?
I'll be for the smarthome the day the devices deactivate their ability to operate once support ends, and support periods are declared and legally enforced. Depends. How old is the source, where did it come from, and can I reflash it? I mean, you can't run source code... Also whose VPN? VPNs are not magic fix alls:
Just messin with ya. We have a heater.
The more connected IoT devices are, the easier it will be to update them. Acceptable. And I'll always be against overclocking. Lets call it a tie. :) Yeah, I'd expect them in every home in areas where temperature drops under 10*C (which AFAIK is true for whole USA).
BTW, I don't overclock, so tie denied.
The global AC demand for 2018 is ~111 million units of which there are 96+ million room ACs.
www.jraia.or.jp/english/World_AC_Demand.pdf
Now for heaters, I'm guesstimating here because a quick glance at Google doesn't yield any "free" info. Taking IEA & Statista you can see that the heater market is rather puny ~
www.iea.org/tracking/tcep2018/buildings/heating/
www.statista.com/statistics/899117/electric-heater-market-value-worldwide/ Actually that's pretty accurate, in places where there isn't snow this is the best way to keep warm especially in the developing world. Also don't forget your sweaters or jackets when you leave home :D
Again, an obvious solution would be: connect everything and force updates. But people like you would be against that as well, right? You're open with your opinion about Windows updates.
The only solutions that can work are the extreme ones. We don't connect anything. Or we connect everything, automate everything and keep it smart devices on a short leash.
All mid-way solutions will be flawed (with human being the main source of problems).
It's like with autonomous cars. The idea is brilliant and it may provide some small statistical wins from the start. But the only way to autonomous cars them really safe and prevent any crashes is to connect them to a common network (so that they can "talk") and ban people from having any direct control. It doesn't have to. It's enough that overclocking impacts the market, i.e. companies make compromises.
But I'm slowly getting over it. I understand DIY desktops are all about OC, gamers and blinky RGB. It's just not for me anymore. I'm not having any pleasure from this like I had 15 years ago.
Next time I'll pay the premium and get something from Dell. At least I'll get a normally looking BIOS. :D But that's electric heaters. It's the least popular kind (and making the least sense).
In Europe every apartment (in fact: pretty much every room) has a traditional heater (a radiator). Isn't that true in USA?
Not from the US, as I said previously, but ACs have always been a bigger market as far as I can remember.