Update – In a statement Intel sent to us, the company has denied the rumors. “Intel is in no way stepping back from the wearables business. In fact, we have several products in the works that we are very excited about, as well as prior launches that highlight our wearable technology such as the TAG Heuer Connected watch and recent Oakley Radar Pace smart eyewear.”
Intel’s position as a chipmaker for computers is pretty solid and there’s no disputing that. However the company’s efforts in mobile devices haven’t exactly been been considered successes, and it seems that in the wearables department, Intel could be considering bowing out as well.
According to a report from TechCrunch, they have been told by their sources that the company could be stepping back from the wearables market, or even worse, exiting the wearables market entirely. Apparently the company has already informed their employees working in their wearables division about this which could result in some pretty huge layoffs by the end of the year.
Some signs from earlier this year that Intel could be backing away include the recall of the Basis Peak wearables that were reported to have been overheating for some users. Instead of issuing replacements, Intel stopped selling the device entirely, and went ahead and announced that they would be shutting down the Peak’s software support by the end of the year.
In any case it remains to be seen if these reports are true, but we guess we’ll have to wait and see what Intel has to say about it. In the meantime we guess if you are looking forward to more Intel wearables in the future, maybe don’t get your hopes up just yet.
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