New tech key in wireless recovery - Wireless

Electronic News, Sept 30, 2002 by Chris Fisher

While the high technology industry overall has suffered a tremendous downturn over the past two years, there are some bright spots--and wireless technology is one of them. The wireless market has not declined as rapidly as other technology segments and is actually one of the most promising moving forward.

It is promising for two reasons. First, the desire to move to wireless has been and will continue to be a driving factor in both the enterprise and home markets. More important, however, are new and emerging wireless technologies such as ultra-wideband and 802.11b/a/g. These technologies are being watched closely to see if they can take a role in pulling the broader technology industry out of its slump.

The classic business enterprise has been a tough economic environment for all technology, including wireless, for the past few years.

And while 802.11a and 802.11b are gaining traction in the enterprise, to date, the industry as a whole hasn't rapidly moved to adopt wireless because of the cost and true performance limitations of the available technologies. Specifically, the data rates and power consumption levels have just not supported many of the consumer applications, such as wirelessly connecting laptops, PDAs, digital projectors, etc. As 802.11b, 802.11a, and now the emerging 802.11g, mature and costs continue downward, we will begin to see the enterprise implement a wireless network for traditional data networking applications.

And despite the downturn, consumer confidence and spending remain stable. In fact, shipments of 802.11b products in the consumer sector surpassed, for the first time, shipments in the enterprise this year. This is a significant shift as many believed the enterprise would drive the wireless connectivity market.

One of the major consumer opportunities lies in solving the problem of wireless digital video and audio distribution within the home. Consumer demand for connectivity among devices remains strong and will continue to grow. And the consumer electronics OEMs have been waiting for a technology that meets their three key requirements: high data rate, low power consumption and low cost. Until now, there have always been trade-offs among these three key features.

However, a key event took place in February when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved unlicensed spectrum for commercial ultra-wideband use. Ultra-wideband is a relatively new technology that simultaneously delivers high data rate, low power and low cost wireless with "wire-like" video quality. Opening up this free spectrum gives technology companies many more options in developing wireless connectivity solutions and, in turn, gives consumer electronics companies more options to create differentiating features for their products. Adding wireless functionality at a low cost to a variety of consumer electronics products will continue to be an enabling capability for expanding the home wireless connectivity market. This in turn will continue to help drive the technology industry toward a broader recovery.

The growth of the wireless market, fueled by consumer demand and many exciting new technologies, will make nearly all wireless technologies winners. All segments of the market will continue to grow--Bluetooth has continued to grow throughout the high-tech downturn, as have 802.11a and 802.11b--and all of these technologies will remain strong as both the enterprise and home markets continue to turn to wireless connectivity solutions.

There is an opportunity for all wireless technnologies to find their true homes. Bluetooth is finding its place, primarily in infrared replacement and point-to-point connectivity for data applications such as a cell phone to a PDA. And ultra-wideband will find its home as a wireless multimedia solution.

Despite the growth of these wireless technologies, many in the wireless industry wonder about recovery. Well, recovery is coming sooner than anyone thinks because exciting new technologies, such as ultra-wideband, will be available in products in the next 12 to 18 months. The 802.11a products are here today and are available in such things as wireless access points in the enterprise, NICs for laptops/PCs, etc. The same will be true for ultra-wideband--consumer products enabled by ultra-wideband wireless technology could be available by the end of 2003.

Chris Fisher is VP of marketing at XtremeSpectrum.