PC Manufacturers Follow Apple into PC Wireless Networking

Computergram International, Sept 16, 1999

Both Compaq and Dell are following Apple Computer Inc's move into the wireless PC networking world. Dell Computer Corp has gone to Akron, Ohio-based Aironet Wireless Communications Inc to provide wireless technology for its business notebooks. Aironet PC cards will cost around $400. The Aironet Wireless Access Point, for connecting systems up to the corporate network, has not yet been priced. Dell will eventually offer the technology with its Inspiron notebooks and consumer and corporate PCs. Future versions will be built-in as internal systems.

And on Monday, as reported, Compaq Computer Corp's new CEO, Michael Capellas, currently on a European press tour, cited wireless connectivity as one of the elements of a new generation of simpler PCs with specialized functions that are easier to get up and running. "Wireless connectivity becomes the baseline" he said at International Data Corp's European IT Forum in Paris. At the same event Capellas admitted that Apple had now proven that "there is a great appeal in industrial design."

Compaq actually introduced its first wireless product - a 2Mbps card for its notebooks - back in June. But Compaq has no base station, and so the card can only be used to communicate between systems on a peer-to-peer basis, not from the server. It is also much slower than the 11Mbps being offered by both Apple and Dell.

Apple, which began shipping its iBook's yesterday (see separate story), will support its AirPort wireless networking system on iBook, iMac and G4 desktop systems. Apple teamed up with Lucent Technologies Inc in an 18-month project to develop Airport, which ships next month. The AirpPort card costs $100 and the base station - which includes a 56K modem for internet access and an Ethernet for cable modems, DSL or the corporate network, is $300. It has a range of 150 feet compared with 300 feet for Dell's Aironet card. Both Apple and Dell are supporting the IEEE 802.11 wireless area network standard.