Intel expunges its wearables division to focus on augmented reality instead

Intel flits from wearables to augmented reality as AMD nibbles away at its core market

Intel has thrown in the towel on its short-lived ambition to become a 'leader' in the wearable market by shutting down the division, lock, stock and barrel.

CNBC reports that Intel let go about 80 per cent of its wearables-focused Basis group in November. Two weeks ago, Intel "completely eliminated the group", according to CNBC' s anonymous source.

This follows a report out of TechCrunch in November, which claimed that the company was planning to take a step back from the business after its acquisition of Basis didn't pan out as expected.

At the time, Intel denied the report, saying: "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 acquired Basis Science for around $100m in March 2014, saying at the time that it was gaining "immediate entry into the market with a leader in health tracking for wearable devices."

However, things started to take a turn for the worse in August last year when Intel was has forced to issue a full recall of the Basis Peak smartwatch following reports of an overheating problem.

The Basis unit was part of Intel's larger New Technologies Group, which is now focusing on augmented-reality technologies, CNBC said.

While it appears as if Intel has thrown in the towel on the wearables market altogether, the firm's website is still advertising its Curie microprocessors for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, including wearables, at least for the time being.

The firm has yet to return our request for comment, but earlier this month confirmed that it's scaling back its IoT ambitions with the culling of 140 staffers. 100 staff were laid off at Intel's Santa Clara HQ, while an additional 40 staff were let go from the firm's office in Leixlip, Ireland.

This came less than a month after the firm announced plans to discontinue its Raspberry Pi-rivalling developer board, Galileo, as well as the Joule and Edison compute modules.