Drones are basically flying processors on a circuit
board that controls motors, camera and transmits telemetry data.
So it should come as no surprise that Intel has
decided to buy German drone company Ascending Technologies to get into the
Drone Industry as reported in the article “Intel
Acquires Drone Company Ascending Technologies”, published January 4th 2016
by Aaron Tilley, Forbes.
The small 75 persons company already has a history with
Intel, with Ascending Technologies already using Intel's RealSense cameras in
their drone designs to sense and avoid obstacles.
Intel by buying this company is going a step further
than just making drone hardware a Qualcomm has been doing with their SoC
(System on a Chip) for drone developers launched in September 2015 as reported
in my blog
article entitled “Qualcomm
Snapdragon Flight for Drone design - Why US$300 DIY Drones with 4K Video and
connectivity options coming in 2016”.
But is Intel planning to become a seller of Drone
hardware?
Intel
buys Ascending Technologies - From Drones Services Industry to semi-autonomous
cars
Rather, they're going after the drone service
industry in a move that mimics Sony, who had partnered with Japanese company
ZMP to form the company Aerosense as reported in my blog article
entitled “Sony
and ZMP to sell Drone Services - Why Aerosense makes sense if Sony Smartphone
are Drone Processor Boards”.
Their business model is not to sell drone but drone
services as noted in my MICO
Wars blog article entitled “Aerosense
in partnership with Japanese robotics and automation company, ZMP”. Albeit making drones would get them into the
drone making business, the drone service industry will be the faster future
rising star in the now heavily regulated Drone Industry.
Rather than own drones, companies and corporation
are more likely to rent drones, with the hobbyist and DIY market merely being a
precursor that mimics how the computer industry got started; through innovators
tinkering in their garages.
Intel had ridden that revolution before, with PC
still being their main bread and butter. By buying a Drone making company, they
can benefit from both the Corporate and Enterprise Drone Services business as
well as use Ascending Technologies to showcase Intel’s 6th-generation Skylake
Processors.
These are the same ones used in their Intel NUC mini
computers as detailed in my MICO
Wars blog article entitled “How
the Intel Grass Canyon NUC PCs sparks interest in Desktop Computing”.
Eventually they’ll branch into semi-autonomous cars
in the next five years as noted in the article “Intel
acquires German drone company as it pursues aerial computing market”,
published January 4, 2016 By Ben Popper, The
Verge as All-Electric Vehicles driven by humans will be a thing of the past
by 2020.
Intel is betting on the future of drones, which is
beginning to rise as regulations in the US of A give the hobbyist dominated
industry some structure.
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