Intel loves the maker community so much it just axed its Arduino, Curie hardware. Ouch

Intel's flirtation with the maker community appears to have fizzled out, although the chip giant insists its passion remains.

After announcing plans to axe its Edison, Galileo, and Joule compute modules later this year, Chipzilla has said it will stop making its Arduino 101 board and its much-hyped Curie module, too.

The Arduino 101 will be available for order until September 17, 2017, according to Intel, and the processor giant will continue to fulfill orders, if any, through December 17, 2017. The Curie module will be available until January 17, 2018, and fulfillment will continue until July 17, 2018.

Intel will no longer update its Curie Open Developer Kit. It plans to leave its community forum for Curie products open until September 15, 2017. After that, the forum enters review-only maintenance mode until June 15, 2020. Intel's GitHub repo, which contains a variety of code related to other projects too, should continue to be available.

Intel says it's trying to find another manufacturer for the Arduino board.

In an statement emailed to The Register, a spokesperson said: "Intel remains an enthusiastic supporter of the maker community and maker mindset. We will continue to support tomorrow’s makers through education and community outreach programs such as Maker Share."

Intel just won't be making the hardware.

Mark Hung, an analyst with consultancy Gartner, explained in a phone interview with The Register that these products fall under Intel's New Technology Group (NTG) rather than its enterprise-oriented Internet of Things group (IoTG).

The NTG was formed in 2015 through the restructuring of Intel's New Devices Group.

"There have been a lot of changes in that group," he said. "The future of the New Technology Group may be a bit uncertain now."

Earlier this month, The Silicon Valley Business Journal reported that Intel planned to layoff 140 workers related to these discontinued products.

Intel, said Hung, "really has not made much of a dent in the consumer IoT space." It appears Intel is getting out of the consumer IoT market to focus on the enterprise sector, he said. For sure, the Curie module, launched amid much fanfare, didn't really go anywhere.

During Intel's April conference call for investors, CEO Brian Krzanich highlighted the IoTG's 11 per cent year over year revenue growth in Q1. The NTG did not get mentioned. ®