Computex 2016 has kicked off in Taiwan that will see keynotes from several companies including ASUS, Intel, Microsoft and more. The big thing at the conference this year? The Internet of Things and how it is changing computing.
First of all, Intel is sacking 12,000 employees in their industry due to what the New York Times is called the “PC Demand Plummet”. Intel is restructuring their company to not only limit themselves to semiconductors but try and compete as a multifaceted tech company. One of the focuses is interconnecting objects together with the Internet of Things.
Brian Krzanich, Intel’s chief executive, alluded to the fact that ignoring the IoT industry wouldn’t be wise due to the number of connected devices rising to 50 billion by 2020.
“We think this is going to grow to 50 billion devices and trillions of dollars of economic impact. It will change the way we live and work. As we go out talking, we see more companies investing in it. We are making a transformation from a PC-oriented company to one that powers things that are connected to the cloud and everything necessary to make that happen,” said Doug Davis, the senior vice president of Internet of Things at Intel, talking to Venture Beat. “We’ve seen how the markets have evolved. We now use data to control things. There’s an opportunity to extract that data and make use of it. We call this phase, like connecting wind energy farms, ‘connecting the unconnected’.
To see some of the Internet-of-Things-connected devices that Intel is bringing out, watch this video from CNet. This is footage from Computex 2016:
Intel is also working towards completely wireless PCs as well. These have chips inside of them that would allow wireless charging of laptops and wireless data sending over connected WiFi networks. They are also working on self-driving cars, but more specifically the screens that will deliver infotainment on the inside of self-driving cars, but nothing they can show off just yet. Once again, all of these things will be connected to the Internet of Things.