How Much is Riding on Wi-Fi?

nexex writes "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's John Cook explores the current flood of money on wireless networking startups and if they could be heading towards another dotcom bubble. Interesting tidbits include, ;More than 60 Wi-Fi start-ups have raised more than $650 million in the past two years, according to VentureWire. Last quarter, there was more money invested into wireless technologies than networking and enterprise software.'" The article's got some good commentary on grassroots-founded tech trends vs. investment-backed tech trends, and tries to explain why wi-fi has caught on so well.

Comments

More than He Thinks is Riding on WiFi

[serutan]

The article only talks about venture capital firms, but I would guess they're in the minority compared to the individuals (like me) who have bought stock in various wireless companies. There are billions invested.

Re:Wireless Fidelity

[sydb]

Not according to Weca! They specifically say it is the name of the technology, in their FAQ. Morons.

To understand the value of Wi-Fi CERTIFICATION, you need to know that Wi-Fi is short for "Wireless Fidelity," and it is the popular name for 802.11-based technologies that have passed Wi-FI CERTIFICATION testing. This includes IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b or technologies that contain both 802.11a and 802.11b technologies -- commonly called "dual band.

(Emphasis mine).

Re:Intel, not Apple, developed/pushed USB

[FueledByRamen]

Intel's coalition developed it, and helped to push it, but the real kick-in-the-pants to the USB standard was the iMac. Suddenly, there was a computer that could ONLY use USB devices. A whole market opened up for stuff that was previously SCSI / Serial / Parallel before: scanners, printers, digital camera interfaces, even floppy drives. Of course, it was in the manufacturers' best interests to also allow these devices to run on Windows machines - they wanted to target 99% of the market, not 3%. Thus the USB revolution began.

A similar thing happened with Firewire. If memory serves, Apple opened the licensing to anyone who wanted to use it in a device for something like $1/port. It didn't really take off, though, until Apple showed people how they could get a DV bridge or a DV camera, hook it up to their computer through Firewire/i.Link/IEEE1394 (take your pick, Apple/Sony/everyone else) and screw with their home movies, then burn them to a DVD (Superdrive). Suddenly, everyone wanted Firewire on their new "digital hub" computer, and similar product ideas popped up all over the PC market. Firewire became standard, and other products started to use it, such as external hard drives (especially since most computers nowadays have no SCSI port), scanners, and camera interfaces.

Take this with a grain of salt, as the events are somewhat hazy in my mind and are probably out of order.