Samsung launches Artik, a line of chips to power the Internet of Things, for between $10-$100
Shara Tibken / CNET :
Context & Ripple Effects
Samsung is confirming what sources described just days earlier: a family of Artik modules priced from $10 to $100, sized so a maker can pick compute by budget. The launch lands in the middle of a scramble for low-cost connected-device silicon, with Intel putting its button-sized Curie module inside the first Arduino board to ship with it and ARM fielding a Cortex A32 core aimed squarely at wearables, embedded systems, and boards like Raspberry Pi.
First-order effects
- Device makers get a tiered menu of Samsung-built IoT modules at three price points, letting hobbyists and product teams standardize on one family as designs scale.
- Intel's Curie strategy now faces direct competition at the sub-$100 module level, since both companies are courting the same wearable and embedded developers.
Second-order effects
- A year later Samsung extended the play upstream into software, launching Artik Cloud so businesses collecting sensor data could stay inside Samsung's stack — turning the chip sale into a services relationship.
- ARM's Cortex A32 gives every other vendor an off-the-shelf low-power core, pressuring Samsung to differentiate on integration rather than on raw silicon availability.
Third-order effects
- By mid-2017 Samsung folded the effort into its mainline processor business, beginning mass production of the Exynos i T200 as its first IoT-optimized processor — evidence that dedicated IoT chips were being absorbed into established SoC roadmaps rather than living as side projects.
- If the pattern holds, competition among Samsung, Intel, and ARM shifts from who ships a cheap module to who owns the full chain of silicon, connectivity, and the cloud layer where device data is analyzed.
The trend: The Internet of Things is pulling major silicon vendors toward bundled platforms — low-cost modules paired with cloud data services — instead of selling standalone components.