How Intel's purchase of Ascending Technologies jumpstarts the Drone Services Industry

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.