Intel Forms New Internet of Things Group

It should come as no surprise that the chip giant Intel is keen on the movement that wants to put a chip on literally everything, but today the company made it official by announcing it would be forming an Internet of Things (IoT) group to push its own vision.

The new group, called the IoT Solutions group, will aim to “accelerate and broaden [Intel’s] reach into market segments and applications commonly referred to as the Internet of Things,” said Intel’s Krystal Temple in a statement.

Per Intel:

[The] new organization will combine the Intelligent Systems Group and Wind River organizations, bringing together the intelligent systems hardware, software, services and platform elements together into one organization. This is the next step in the company’s ongoing activities supporting the proliferation of IoT implementations across the industry. Intel will deliver solutions for companies that are investing in technologies to both drive operating efficiencies and create new services by connecting devices to each other and the cloud to transform their businesses. The new organization will be led by Vice President and General Manager, Doug Davis, a long-time Intel leader and embedded industry veteran and will report directly to the executive office (President and CEO).

As noted in the statement, the new group, led by Doug Davis, will report directly to Intel CEO, Brian Krzanich. In an interview with Reuters, Davis explained the creation of the new group saying that Intel did not want to be caught off-guard as the IoT phenomenon proliferates. “Krzanich is saying, ‘I want a higher level of focus on this to help us grow it and put the level of attention on it that it deserves,'” Davis told Reuters.

The new division formation follows a September announcement during the Intel Developer Forum, where Krzanich announced a bevy of low power “system on a chip” offerings, including its Intel Quark processor family, a new lower-power processor designed “for applications where lower power and size take priority over higher performance.”

“The next wave of computing is still being defined,” said Krzanich. “Wearable computers and sophisticated sensors and robotics are only some of the initial applications.” Whatever those applications turn out to be, Intel’s announcement today show that it intends to be in the driver’s seat, not reacting to the market as has been the case with the mobile trend.

Last month at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo 2013 in Orlando Florida, Gartner Research Head Peter Sondergaard described the Internet of Things as a phenomenon that will fundamentally change the world before our eyes. “In 2009 there were 0.9 billion sensors and 1.6 billion personal devices,” said Sondergaard. “[That’s] roughly 2.5 billion things that were connected. By 2020, that will grow to become 30 billion things. Compute power will be cheap and covert – we won’t know it’s there. It will be in our jewelry, our clothing. We’ll put more computers into our laundry in a week than we’ve used in our lifetime so far.”

Intel has gotten started and is ready to take the ball and run. “We’re pulling together a couple of pieces that are already doing well and we want to accelerate those efforts.” Davis says.

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