Apple Airport Wireless Will Take Off
Apple Computer on Tuesday said that it sold 150,000 AirPort Extreme 802.11g base stations during the first quarter. All told, the company said it sold around 300,0000 wireless networking base stations during the first quarter, with the remaining number being standard 802.11b AirPort devices. The AirPort sales figures are for the entire quarter, while the AirPort Extreme shipments represent sales starting the last week in January through the end of the quarter. Overall, retail demand for 802.11g gear is robust. More than 20 percent of wireless networking gear sold at retail in March was 802.11g, up from 5 percent in March, according to NPDTechworld.
Read the full story on: CNET News.com
Startup Lets WLANs Use More Channels
A chipset coming from startup Engim that could let companies get significantly more bandwidth from each access point. Even though wireless LAN (WLAN) standards provide for a dozen or more channels on both the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz band, most current access points only use one channel at a time. According to Engim, the problem is that the channels are close together and transmissions in one channel bleed over others. Engim says it solved that problem with technology that can look at the entire spectrum band, analyze whats happening in each part of it and compensate for interference between channels. With it, Engims chipsets let users communicate over three channels on 802.11b or g and as many as six channels on 802.11a, said Scott Lindsay, vice president of marketing at Engim.
Read the full story on: InfoWorld
Will Wireless Roll On?
First-quarter results from Motorola and Texas Instruments showed wireless as a telecom bright spot but there are questions whether the momentum will carry through the year. Among the “worrisome trends” spotted by Deutsche Bank (DB), was the loss of market share in China. During the last nine months, several startups have opened manufacturing factories there, increasing supply and squeezing Motorola and other phone makers who count on strong sales in the country. Meanwhile, TI also released good first-quarter results, 7 cents per share on revenue of $2.19 billion. DB noted that, like Motorola, TI is watching costs and will eliminate 800 jobs to save $80 million a year, though 2005 will be the first time the savings will be seen. Many of the cuts will come from TIs sensors and controls business in Attleboro, Mass.
Read the full story on: InternetNews.com
Chinese 3G: Open to All?
Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) is set to take a major role in Chinas move to third-generation wireless technology, when 3G licenses are awarded by the government later this year, according to analysts at Lehman Brothers. Lehman Brothers made its assumptions following recent talks with Chinese government and industry officials. Analyst Alan Hellawell sees a 60 percent chance of the government awarding a combination of two CDMA2000 and two W-CDMA licenses. He adds that there is also a greater likelihood of one CDMA 2000 and three W-CDMA licenses being presented, rather than one W-CDMA and three CDMA2000 contracts. The W-CDMA air interface is part of the universal mobile telecommunications standard (UMTS). Used with existing GSM core networks, W-CDMA-compliant handsets and base stations can increase wireless data transfer rates to a maximum of 2 Mbit/s.
Read the full story on: Unstrung
Wireless Porn Wont Be Sell, Analyst Firm Said
Wireless research and consulting company Strategy Analytics said in a report that the market for wireless porn will only reach $1 billion by 2008. “We believe the advantages of the mobile phone as a personal and discrete device for viewing pornography are overstated,” said Philip Taylor, a senior analyst with the firm. “The value of the mobile channel to the porn industry will be greater as a CRM-tool than as a distribution medium.”
Read the full story on: RCR Wireless News