Intel’s Galileo Discontinuation and the Future of IoT Hardware Development Kits

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3Q 2017 | IN-4638

In June (2017), Intel announced that it was discontinuing its Galileo, Edison, and Joule development boards with a last product shipment date to be December 16, 2017 for each product line. Intel quietly made the announcement in the form of product change notifications detailing the discontinuances. Intel’s development kits were a key component in its strategy to attract developers to its ecosystem, and it is seen as an attempt by Intel to not miss the IoT wave like it had with mobile. This announcement does not mean that Intel is giving up on its IoT aspirations, but it should serve as a warning sign for other IoT hardware development kit manufacturers about how to attract developers in the changing and maturing IoT market.

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The Battle for Developers

NEWS


In June (2017), Intel announced that it was discontinuing its Galileo, Edison, and Joule development boards with a last product shipment date to be December 16, 2017 for each product line. Intel quietly made the announcement in the form of product change notifications detailing the discontinuances. Intel’s development kits were a key component in its strategy to attract developers to its ecosystem, and it is seen as an attempt by Intel to not miss the IoT wave like it had with mobile. This announcement does not mean that Intel is giving up on its IoT aspirations, but it should serve as a warning sign for other IoT hardware development kit manufacturers about how to attract developers in the changing and maturing IoT market.   

Positioning in the IoT Era

IMPACT


There are several reasons why Intel would discontinue these development kits, and while these discontinuances could simply be Intel pulling unprofitable products from its portfolio offering, the reality is that in the short-term, hardware development kits provide very little increased revenue. These development kits instead were aimed at the long-term goal of expanding the number of users and developers using its IoT platforms to create more IoT devices and drive chip sales. Intel has a large stake in IoT because it produces the chips that connect devices in a wide range of vertical markets.

Intel also has another development kit, the MinnowBoard 3, which was released in May (2017) and has so far been spared from discontinuation. It is disconcerting, though, that Intel would essentially throw away three of the most recognizable products in the IoT development space. For Intel to spend four years building the Galileo brand of products only to toss it aside signifies that there are larger changes afoot than just the axing of unprofitable products.       

First Mover Advantage

COMMENTARY


Intel discontinued those products because it realized that in order to succeed in attracting developers to its ecosystem, it had to ensure that its platform and other software offerings worked with open-source hardware kits that developers already owned and were familiar with. Intel is not the only company to face similar challenges in this space. In early 2016, Helium announced its Helium Sensor Development Kit, which was to allow IoT developers access to the Helium platform to create IoT solutions. Helium’s experience was that while its hardware kit did enable developers to create IoT solutions, developers were more comfortable using development kits that they were familiar with. Developers wanted to use resources like the Helium platform, libraries, and other software development kits, but they wanted to use those resources on devices they were more familiar with, like Raspberry Pi and Arduino boards. Developers will continue to congregate largely behind open-source kits due to available developer resources such as forums, software libraries, and use cases.

For companies like Intel and Helium to drive their ecosystem growth, they need to focus on making sure that their solutions are interoperable with these open-source development boards. ABI Research previously stated that kits like Intel’s and Helium’s were never going to be used in the place of open-source boards, rather, it would be used in addition to them. In the wake of Intel announcing its kit discontinuations, Arduino announced that it was releasing a kit focused on LoRa developers, further demonstrating the desire for open-source hardware solutions in the developer market and the need for manufacturers to recognize this demand and adjust their current offerings. 

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