Wireless LAN Equipment Shipments Up

MrBounce writes "Worldwide shipments of wireless local-area network equipment increased by 120 percent in 2002 from a year ago. So who are the current market leaders in this field?"

Comments

have a look at Nortel

[SubtleNuance]

Nortel has some really good product: here, their VOIP handsets/desktop phones and software-based-voip-phones are *very* cool... coupled with a 802.11x AP, it is VERY COOL. Ipaq + 802.11x CF Nic + Nortel Software == wirless phone in your office.

Re:have a look at Nortel

[Ungrounded Lightning]

$25 will do the same thing.

Nope.

That device wireless links you to a POTS line.

The Nortel (and related) boxes wireless link you to VoIP on an internet portal.

Use the 802.11x handset anywhere you've got an access point that lets you hit the net.

Plug the IP desk set in ditto with your wired LAN. Move offices by unplugging it and carrying it, rather than having the $400/hr consultant come reconfigure the PBX. Heck: Move to the branch office on the other coast, or take an "office phone" home and plug it into the hub on your DSL modem.

Think "free long-distance" and "cellphone" and "no air-time", vs. "wireless extension phone" with an invisible cord to your phone jack.

long distance wireless - much greater than 300 ft

[leoaugust]

This is probably a good time to create a current review of the long distance (>> 300 ft) Wireless solutions that are available in the market.

Richochet is one http://www.ricochet.com/

and another is Vivato http://www.vivato.net/

What are the other ones in the market?

Re:Good

[Archfeld]

u r correct, and a wireless hub with lots of folks, say a lan party with 50 people would be a nightmare of crossing and lost signals. I've seen some very funny things with that many people and wireless mice as well.

Bottom line is 100 mb cat5e or if you are lucky Gigabit. I always borrow a cisco switch from work for the weekend to ensure some true thruput goodness.

Apple is just too small a player in wireless

[sjbe]

It could be due to a small market share I suppose, but Apple has paid the price for leadership again and again by innovating and then everyone else jumping on board.

Not really. Remember Apple only has a small (5%) market share in computers to begin with and their wireless gear generally is only sold to people who have Macs. And not everyone who has a Mac uses the wireless so the population is even smaller. It's not really surprising they wouldn't be near the top given how popular 802.11b has become.

Plus Apple doesn't make their own wireless gear. They OEM it from others. Lucent at one point (still?) was the maker of some of their stuff if I recall. They were innovative in using it but they never really were the technology innovators here. They were just smart enough to realize that it was useful ahead of almost everyone else.

Re:Apple is just too small a player in wireless

[DustMagnet]

Plus Apple doesn't make their own wireless gear. They OEM it from others. Lucent at one point.

Lucent changed to Orinoco and now Proxim, which surprise surprise is on the list.

BTW, these Orinoco/Proxim cards are some of the best. Great range, good drivers (wardriving patches) and an external connector for even better range.

Much, MUCH greater than 300 feet.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell, I get my internet from a provider's tower over 4.5 MILES away from my house. I only have a lowly Linksys WET11 802.11b bridge too. Of course I also have a 24db parabolic reflector antenna on a 40 foot pole pointed back to the ISP's antenna, and good clear line-of-site between the two antennas. I generally get 11Mbps to their access point with 70% "signal quality" and 85-90% "signal strength".

The future is not that bright

[prostoalex]

It is really hard for a newcomer to enter the Wi-Fi market right now. The wireless LAN market suddenly achieved saturation and started experiencing price wars even before it was fully developed and there was an 802.11 hotspot at every house.

TechKnowledge claims that even though the shipment volumes will grow, the revenues from the wireless LAN sales will decline , since this market is currently experiencing oversupply.

However, this is bonanza time for consumers and businesses, here are some quotes from the market report quoted above:

The average price for a chip that enables connections for an 802.11b wireless LAN (WLAN), also known as Wi-Fi, was $16.06 in 2002, but that price will drop to $6.61 by the end of 2003.

The price for chips based on the 802.11g standard is also expected to fall this year, from $18 per chip in 2002 to $9.68 by the end of 2003

Re:Security?

[pantherace]

Disabling SSID essentially only means that 100% listeners can't see it if someone isn't using it. However if someone is, then they can. SSID and WEP really have some big security holes. IPsec is very good compared to it. For SSID, if someone sees you (re)connect once it's lost, and can lead to breaking wep quite easily.

The (current) downside of mesh nets: Don't scale.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Unfortunately, the current implementations don't scale to the size of even the current internet - because they requre every node to know about every other (in case it needs to forward a packet).

(Routing table explosions were what drove the switch from RIP to BGP in the first place.)

They'll get there eventually. Meanwhile, imagine them as drops of mercury. When two touch they join. And when two equal-sized drops join, each "atom" (machine) in the big drop needs twice as much table space as it needed in the separate little drop.

Now imagine them joining, and joining, and joining, until the whole world is covered by one big drop. Somewhere along the way the tables get too big for your handheld, VoIP phone, toaster, or what-have-you.