Intel has now revealed the next big step for their NUC business; a non-exclusive contract with OEM and partner ASUS.
A week ago, Intel revealed plans to exit the hardware industry, one of many painful cuts the company has to make to address slipping revenue. In Intel’s case, the PC hardware they had been making where NUCs, short for Next Unit of Computing.
Intel’s NUC line was launched in 2013, yes, more or less a decade ago. While Intel did not invent the idea of a small form factor PC, they innovated on it greatly. What were once bespoke devices relegated to specific markets and user bases, was rebranded and redesigned to an all-in-one computing solution.
The main idea with the NUC was to get consumers to take their Windows computers out of their offices and finding new solutions and uses. What made them distinct was the 4 x 4 inch motherboards that they employed, making it possible to make computers the size of modems or lunchboxes.
The impossibly tiny computer line found new applications in a variety of situations, from call centers, cube farms, computer based kiosks, digital signage, and others. Most consumers could also just strap them to the back of their home screens as backup PCs or entertainment desktops.
While there was a lot of FUD that Intel was just shuttering the NUC line completely, it seems that it does make enough money to keep going. As reported by Serve The Home, Intel has agreed to a term sheet with ASUS. This term sheet is a contract for ASUS to make the next few lines of Intel NUC computers, from the 10th to 13th generation.
As Serve The Home points out, rumors about this agreement had been going around for some time now, way before Intel decided to exit the business. ASUS now becomes Intel’s chosen partner for product support for Intel NUC systems in the future.
For their part, ASUS will actually create a new division called ASUS NUC BU (business unit). ASUS’ license for NUC is not exclusive, so if other OEMs want to discuss terms with Intel in the future, they can do that too.
Intel has sold over 10 million NUCs in the past ten years they have established the brand. Some fans believed that Intel saw that number as a ‘drop in the bucket’. It’s certainly not as big a business as what Microsoft has made of their Surface line, worth $ 6.7 billion in revenue as of November 2022.
But Intel never really talked publicly about their goals and objectives with the NUC line. One can argue if Intel wanted to disrupt PCs like Microsoft did with the Surface, that they met that objective.
But then, one can also say that in the same way that Microsoft isn’t done yet with the Surface, that Intel isn’t done with the NUC either.
