Intel cancels its biggest event of the year as the world moves past the PC

Microprocessor supergiant Intel has discontinued the Intel Developers Forum (IDF), its annual mega-conference in San Francisco, citing the difficulties of getting across a unified message as it moves past PCs into a bold new future.

The cancellation of IDF was first reported by Anandtech and confirmed by a post on the event website. This year's IDF was originally supposed to be held from August 15th through the 17th. Earlier in 2017, Intel had announced that its annual IDF conference in China would not be held this year.

Historically, IDF is where the company makes new product announcements, including the unveiling of new processors.

Now, Intel tells Anandtech, the idea is that the company is moving beyond just focusing on PCs and servers, and into new areas like self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, the so-called "Internet of Things," and it's a lot to fit all of that into one event. And so, Intel is apparently looking to hold multiple smaller, more focused events.

So as much as anything, you can take the discontinuation of IDF as another victim of the PC market, which has been shrinking for five years straight now, and another sign of Intel trying to reinvent itself under those circumstances.

Intel did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.