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Intel bought Basis Science in 2014 to enter the emerging wearables market with a Smart Watch, but today they announced a product recall, another sad misstep for Intel.
Wow. I saw the Basis B1 prototypes pre-acquisition at CES. I'm shocked that this problem could have lingered so long, several years. The note about a hoped-for software fix is interesting, it can monitor your body temp but apparently not its own.
I seriously doubt the problem is the processor itself - teardowns of the Basis Peak indicate it has a Silicon Labs ARM Cortex-M4. Maybe the battery charging system? Would be interesting to get details.
Product recalls in the consumer sector are kind of a death knell for that brand. I'd expect Intel to be exiting the smart watch business shortly. Ironically Intel bought an LED watch company back in the 1970s called Microma, which they soon disbanded because of intense competition from the many other consumer brands.
Wearables are nothing new for chip vendors. In 1970, Seiko introduced a CMOS chip to the 36SQC quartz watch. Hamilton shipped its Pulsar digital watch with an RCA chip in 1972, replacing 44 discrete chips in its prototypes. Samsung’s semiconductor heritage began with digital watch chips in 1973. In 1974, Intel produced the 5810 digital watch chip with 1850 transistors for their Microma subsidiary. Dozens of vendors climbed on, most notably TI in September 1975 who quickly took market share with single-chip watches under $40.
History does tend to repeat itself. In the Basis case, however, it looks like Intel may not have muddled enough. I'm not sure what they have actually gained from the acquisition. The Curie technology is on a completely separate rail for wearables.
