Intel unveils button-sized Curie module to power future wearables
Katie Collins / Wired.co.uk :
Context & Ripple Effects
Intel used CES to stake a claim on the low end of wearables with Curie, a button-sized system-on-chip module aimed at devices that need always-on sensing without a phone nearby. The bet matured quickly: by October Intel had made the low-cost Arduino 101 the first product built on Curie, and a year later it committed to actually shipping the module in Q1 at under $10.
The follow-on coverage tells the rest of the arc — Intel kept extending the same module logic into adjacent markets with Joule and Project Euclid, then sources reported deep layoffs in its wearables-focused New Devices Group, making this unveiling the opening move of a program that was later scaled back.
First-order effects
- Wearable makers and hobbyist developers get a sub-$10 compute-and-sensor module purpose-built for low-power devices, removing the cost floor that previously pushed tiny designs toward phone-tethered architectures.
Second-order effects
- The maker ecosystem becomes Intel's distribution channel: putting Curie into the Arduino 101 routes the module through the board community rather than waiting on consumer wearable OEMs to design it in.
Third-order effects
- Intel generalized the module approach beyond wrists — Joule for computer-vision prototyping and Project Euclid for robots — but the later layoffs reported in New Devices Group suggest the wearable-module business never reached the scale the CES launch implied, leaving the pattern of big-module bets followed by retrenchment.
The trend: Intel spent 2015–2016 trying to own the tiny-compute layer of wearables and robotics through cheap modules like Curie, before market reality forced its new-devices division to shrink.