Once upon a time, Intel wanted to establish itself as the go-to chipmaker for wearables. What's more, the company bought the pioneering fitness band company Basis -- its first consumer-facing business in a very long time. Now comes word that Intel has finally and officially killed its wearables business. In truth, it was a long time coming. Intel rarely talks about internal … [Read more...]
Intel Pulls Plug on Basis Fitness Tracker; Will Shut Down Hub at Year End
Intel appears to have thrown in the towel on its Basis fitness trackers, telling all users to send them back and saying it will turn off the server they need at the end of 2016. Basis was an early and fairly successful wearables startup, with a wrist device that was one of the first dedicated to serious athletes. Intel, which had never been in a consumer-facing business … [Read more...]
Intel Says to Stop Wearing the Basis Peak Watch
A posting on the website of Intel's Basis fitness tracker is advising customers to stop wearing the watch while an overheating problem is getting fixed. On June 13, Basis posted that a "small number" of users were experiencing overheating problems with the Peak and B1 trackers, to the extent that the device "in some cases caused discomfort, blistering or burns on … [Read more...]
Intel Acquires Recon Instruments
Intel continues its sweep into the consumer wearables market, acquiring Recon Instruments for a reported $175 million. Recon is big in the sports segment of the augmented reality market, making the tech guts of an Oakley ski visor, as well as its own Snow2 and Jet glasses and the Engage smartphone app. Intel was an investor in Recon through its Intel Capital wing, and … [Read more...]
Basis Adds Health and Fit Ecosystem Support, and What That Means for Apple and Google
Unanimity among tech users is hard to come by, but a lot of athletes we know are big fans of the Basis Peak fitness tracker. A new software update now lets the Peak share its data with both the Apple Health and Google Fit ecosystems. The Peak is known for the comprehensiveness of the data it collects. By joining with those widely used ecosystems, Basis data can now be tied … [Read more...]
Basis Peak Now Talks to iOS Apps, Gets Distribution and Notifications
The Basis Peak heart-rate monitor from Intel is one of the nicer bits of athletic wristware, but was a little hobbled by its inability to communicate with popular ecosystems. The company announced today that they've filled that gap, streaming data to iOS apps for Strava, MapMyRun, and Endomondo. (There's no Android capability, due to a protocol incompatibility, the company … [Read more...]
Intel Buys Basis; Enters the Consumer Market
We didn't think they'd do it -- and in truth, it still doesn't make a lot of sense to us -- but Intel and Basis announced today that the former company has bought the latter. No price was stated, although TechCrunch put the price at $100 million. Intel, of course, wants very badly to be in the wearables chip market. Basis makes one of the better heart-rate sensor watches, … [Read more...]
TechCrunch Says Basis is Selling to Intel. We Have Our Doubts. (Update)
Late last night, TechCrunch posted a story saying that Basis -- the heart monitor wristwear company -- was selling itself to Intel for $100 million. We suspect that the reality is a bit more complicated. At Mobile World Congress last week, we heard and spoke to a bunch of high-ranking Intel execs. We had the opportunity to ask Intel president Renee James about upcoming Intel … [Read more...]
Basis Selling Itself to Whomever, says Techcrunch
Monday morning usually brings a spate of M&A news/leaks. Today, Techcrunch reports that Basis -- the heart monitor wristband company -- is either trying to sell itself or raise a Series C round. The acquisition candidates include Apple, Google, Samsung, or maybe Microsoft. The Basis tracker has the reputation for being one of the more accurate products on the market, but … [Read more...]
CIO on MobileCon Panel
CIO Magazine's Al Sacco -- a talented and reliable reporter -- has a nice piece on a wearables panel at the MobileCon show this week. There are a bunch of good takeaways, so the whole article is worth your time. Most notable: Reliance on smartphones will take a few years to get over. "It doesn't always make sense to replicate the sensors in phones," said an exec at Basis … [Read more...]