Mobile Intel dawn, but having robots and Wearables

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, California — Jimmy, an Intel-powered, 3D-printable robot made a surprise appearance at Recode's Code Conference on Wednesday.

The pint-sized bot was announced earlier this year and costs roughly $16,000. However, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, who was on stage with Recode's Walt Mossberg, also briefly showed off a new $1,600 Edison kit robot. "Robots are coming, like it or not," said Krzanich.

The demonstrations were part of frank technology discussion where Krzanich admitted Intel had stumbled on mobile. "We missed the tablet. We missed that transition.”

"If you look at computing all through history, it’s gotten continuously smaller, more mobile, more connected," said Krzanich. However, Intel wanted to stop that transition at laptops, while the market, obviously moved on.

Now Intel is in step with that curve, which Krzanich believes will continue on to the Internet of things and wearables.

Speaking of wearables, Krzanich took the stage with a battery-powered smart shirt on under his button-down shirt. He demonstrated how sensors in the shirt, which has metal woven into the fabric, and the embedded Edison chip could measure his heart rate and EKG in real-time and display the data on his smartphone.

The shirt is coming this summer. In fact, Krzanich thinks consumers should expect to see an explosion of sensor-driven products in the near future.

Capturing the mobile and embedded express

While Krzanich admits Intel missed the first mobile wave because it didn't have the right products at the right time, he plans on targeting all of its products into smaller and more mobile devices.

In the space of a year and a half, "we'll go from virtually zero market share to 15% to 20%." Roughly 80% of the mobile products Intel sells go into Android devices.

Intel is so invested in wearables that it bought wearable device manufacturer Basis earlier this year. The move, though, was somewhat surprising, since Intel is not considered a traditional consumer technology company (though its components appear in consumer products). Still, Krzanich said, we should expect to see more consumer and wearable partnerships in the near future.



VIA mashable