Intel pins hopes on India for wearable technology

NEW DELHI: Intel expects India to offer big opportunities for wearable technologies, and the US-based chipmaker is trying to build the market with partner engagements and system-onchips development, which integrates all components of an electronic system into a single chip.

Sandeep Aurora, Intel's South Asia director of marketing and market development, told ET that the company is working with a bunch of players to develop a variety of form factors in the wearables and Internet of Things devices segments. He didn't share further details.

Wearable technologies — such as clothing and accessories embedded with advanced electronic technologies which, for instance, can track things like fitness levels of the person wearing it — is increasingly becoming popular across the world. The wearable segment is a part of the Internet of Things — the concept of connecting individual devices through wireless communications to draw operational data and control them.

Global wearable computing device shipments are expected to increase to 150 million units by 2018, ten times that of last year, according to a study by Juniper Research. In India, the market is at a nascent stage, selling a handful of products like smartwatches and fitness bands launched by handset makers such as Samsung, Sony and Alcatel One Touch.

China's Xiaomi is also looking to enter the Indian wearable market with the launch of its fitness band, called MiBand. The Indian market is much more niche, and will continue to remain so in the future, said Aurora, adding that the market will see developments around healthcare and security segments in terms of wearables.

Aurora said the company is building system-on-chips — used in the Internet of Things devices and wearables — at its Bengaluru research and development centre, the chip maker's third largest R&D site globally. "A lot of action is happening on this front and we have a robust roadmap for these market segments." He said the R&D work in Bengaluru and Indian partnerships for wearables will help Intel push forward the technology at the global level. "India will add value to the whole wearable market in a significant way."