Intel Used a Productivity App to Learn About Users’ Needs. Now It’s Shutting it Down

Listed on the App Store under “Siberia LLC” the app was created by Intel employees to help the company study user needs and behaviors

Intel developed and used productivity app Midu to study user behavior and needs, an Intel executive wrote in a statement published on the app’s website, miduapp.com. The statement was signed by Ronen Soffer, a general manager of software products at Intel. It was reposted on Thursday to a Facebook public group called Midu power users.

 

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Listed on the App Store under seller Siberia LLC, Midu was designed as a personal planner that could be used to synchronize meetings and tasks and set reminders and alarms. The free app was ad-free, which apparently raised a few eyebrows among more astute users.

Ronen Soffer. Photo: Amit Sha'al

 

“You may remember that, occasionally when asked by users, we kept telling you that Midu will never contain ads, or use your personal data for monetization,” Mr. Soffer said in the statement. “I think it’s time we told you what made us so confident in making, and keeping, this promise.”

 

Midu, Mr. Soffer said, was created by Intel employees working in the company’s wearable devices group to help Intel software developers’ study user needs and behaviors.

 

Mr. Soffer said the app, originally designed to power Intel’s now-defunct Vaunt smart glasses, is due to shut down within two weeks.

 

In April, Intel announced it was shutting down its New Devices Group (NDG), responsible for developing wearable devices including the Vaunt smart glasses, and laying-off some of its team.

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“Just as the technology became mature and timing was right for it to power the contextual aspects of our group’s Vaunt Smart Glasses, the group got shut down, and with it, unfortunately, so will Midu,” Mr. Soffer said in the statement.

 

The Verge revealed the Vaunt smart glasses in a February article, describing it as an ordinary looking—if clunky—glasses that can laser-project information onto the wearer’s retina.