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Intel kills off its PC-focused developer event

Intel kills off its PC-focused developer event

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Intel is killing off its annual developer event. Hosted in San Francisco, the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) was designed to provide developers with the latest information for Intel’s chipsets and serve as an event to unveil new products. Intel has used IDF to launch processors like Skylake or Kaby Lake, and even some of its networking and storage solutions. Intel was scheduled to hold IDF in August this year, but a note on the company’s site has revealed the conference has been canceled.

“Intel has evolved its event portfolio and decided to retire the IDF program moving forward,” says Intel. “Thank you for nearly 20 great years with the Intel Developer Forum!” Anandtech reports that Intel is cancelling its developer forum as the company has been changing its focus over the last few years. Intel is attempting to shift away from its PC reliance towards a focus on data with AI, IoT, wireless communications, and automotive areas.

The end of IDF is a reminder of Intel’s struggles. Intel, like Microsoft, missed a huge mobile opportunity just as the PC market was set to decline. The majority of PCs, including Apple’s range of Macs, use Intel’s chipsets, but millions devices more use ARM-based processors inside smartphones. Intel announced at IDF last year that it will start building ARM-based smartphone chips, but we’ve not seen the results of this production line change just yet. Intel is now expected to hold separate events for its announcements in the future, instead of revealing them all in a single event like IDF.