Intel Postpones Innovation 2024 Event, Cites Poor Finances
by Ryan Smith on August 8, 2024 7:15 PM EST
As Intel looks to streamline its business operations and get back to profitability in the face of weak revenues and other business struggles, nothing is off the table as the company looks to cut costs into 2025 – not even Intel’s trade shows. In an unexpected announcement this afternoon, Intel has begun informing attendees of its fall Innovation 2024 trade show that the event has been postponed. Previously scheduled for September of this year, Innovation is now slated to take place at some point in 2025.
Innovation is Intel’s regular technical showcase for developers, customers, and the public, and is the successor to the company’s legendary IDF show. In recent years the show has been used to deliver status updates on Intel’s fabs, introduce new client platforms like Panther Lake, launch new products, and more.
But after 3 years of shows, the future of Innovation is up in the air, as Intel has officially postponed the show – and with a less-than-assuring commitment to when it may return.
In a message posted on the Innovation 2024 website (registration required), and separately sent out via email, Intel announced the postponement of the show. In lieu of the show, Intel still plans on holding smaller developer events.
After careful consideration, we have made the decision to postpone our Intel-hosted event, Intel Innovation in September, until 2025. For the remainder of 2024, we will continue to host smaller, more targeted events, webinars, hackathons and meetups worldwide through Intel Connection and Intel AI Summit events, as well as have a presence at other industry moments.
Depending on your development needs, please leverage the following developer resources to learn more: developer.intel.com, developer.intel.com/ai, open.intel.com and intel.com/support. Click here for a full list of Developer events.
-Intel Innovation Website
Separately, in a statement sent to PCMag, the company cited its current financial situation, and that they “are having to make some tough decisions as we continue to align our cost structure and look to assess how we rebuild a sustainable engine of process technology leadership.”
While Intel had not yet published a full agenda for the now-delayed show, Innovation 2024 was expected to be a major showcase for Intel’s Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake client processors, both of which are due this fall. Arrow Lake in particular is Intel’s lead product for their 20A process node – their first node implementing RibbonFETs and PowerVia backside power delivery – so its launch will be an important moment for the company. And while the postponement of Innovation won’t impact those launches, it means that Intel won’t have access to the same stage or built-in audience that comes with hosting your own trade show. Never mind the lost opportunities for software developers, who are the core audience for the show.
Officially, the show is just postponed. But given the lead time needed to reserve the San Jose Convention Center and similar venues, it’s unclear whether Intel will be able to host a show before the second half of 2025 – at which point we’d be closer to Innovation 2025, making Innovation 2024 de facto cancelled.
In the meantime, the company has already announced that they’ll be launching Lunar Lake at IFA in Germany in September. So that remains the next big trade show for Intel’s client chip group.
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PeachNCream - Thursday, August 8, 2024 - link
Trade shows are pretty pointless these days anyway. It's just disappointing it took cost cutting rather than intelligent thinking to take that proverbial lame horse out behind the barn. Hopefully the rest of the industry uses this as an excuse to follow Intel's lead. Probably not though and I'm eternally pessimistic about the collective intelligence of our species - with good reason.drwho9437 - Thursday, August 8, 2024 - link
These events cost a lot and it does little but talk to a small number of people. Press interviews and the internet are more effective.Why do we need things like CEOs saying: oh one more thing, the iPhone 5000 you knew we were going to try to convince you that you needed. It spies on you better than the 4999; etc.
Do interviews, publish white papers, skip the travel and renting vast spaces.
do_not_arrest - Wednesday, August 28, 2024 - link
clearly you have never "been" to one. These are a great way to get your company to send you to a free vacation while you still get paid for non-vaction time. Call it a boondoggle or whatever, tech workers live on this stuff. Especially the ones in Vegas!Exotica - Thursday, August 8, 2024 - link
Do what Apple does and film the stuff.NextGen_Gamer - Friday, August 9, 2024 - link
You do realize that Apple still hosts an actual event for that right? Like they still invite countless media and developers to their campus, who watch the same video as we do streaming, but are then there for the rest of the day doing hands-on with the products and talking to Apple devs.name99 - Friday, August 9, 2024 - link
Difference is- Apple announces what they have available and will ship in the next month (worst case it's something like software that will ship in three months, or "strategic" HW to ship in six months). But it's always something that basically already works and what's left is details like volume ramp or UI polish.
- Intel announces whatever marketing tells them they "need to say", based on fantasies on what the world will look like five year from now. Then they
+ scramble to make it happen (even when it's no longer the right thing to do, because they are committed to it)
+ what they ship is worse than promised and delayed. So what could have been an impressive product is ALWAYS a disappointment because it's always worse than the fantasy.
Result is Apple is where they are, and Intel is where they are.
One under-promises, over-delivers, and STFU about product that isn't ready.
One of them, uh, not so much...
Whiteknight2020 - Saturday, August 10, 2024 - link
Except of course all Apple does is introduce yet more client landfill which nicely funds China whilst ripping off software makers to the tune of 30%At least Intel actually *makes* chips *and* produces datacentres gear.
Kevin G - Friday, August 9, 2024 - link
These shows are where the roadmap is laid out to see where things are going short term and long term. New items on the roadmap get publicly disclosed here for the first time. Now there are voids where Intel would be showing off their next AI accelerator, network products (granted that wing of the company was mostly sold off ~18 months ago) and discrete ARC GPU. None of these are near an imminent release (at least how you classify Battlemage on Lunar Lake). This isn't just a show case for future products but technology and R&D projects those concepts would work their way into products down the road. Packaging and foundry services were to be another key highlight of the show.On the flip side, Intel is not in a good place to be hosting an event with the 13th/14th gen issues and oxidation issues with products in some of their fabs. Those would have to be addressed but the company appears to be hiding in their own turtle shell than face their own mess.
IanCutress - Friday, August 9, 2024 - link
The oxidation issue (technically not an oxidation issue but an edge liner issue that keeps being classified wrongly) was fixed early last year.do_not_arrest - Wednesday, August 28, 2024 - link
you need to start seeing the forest instead of the trees. "Oxidation" impacting a roadmap event? You think Apple would address a bug in the calendar app in an Iphone release? Small minded people make me mad. Sigh