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April 4, 2003

More on Hot Spot Uptake

By Glenn Fleishman

Hot spots aren’t seeing the numbers yet they need to survive: T-Mobile once again says they’re not promoting their service, which is specious (see my earlier comments).

The crux of the article is this: Wi-Fi use “is certainly not growing at the same pace as its footprint,” said In-Stat/MDR analyst Amy Cravens. “We are seeing an increase in locations, but not a significant increase in usage of those locations.”

This is what’s motivating Intel’s Centrino campaign: even though it’s non-unique to stick a Wi-Fi card into a laptop, Intel would like to make the idea of wireless access with a laptop so compelling that people dump their 1997 to 2001 laptops and upgrade to a 2003 laptop.

Especially businesses. I keep finding out more and more about how business purchase cycles are several years long, and thus there are plenty of laptops running Windows 98 and NT which could add Wi-Fi but not with the kind of ease and reliability of using it under Windows XP with the latest, greatest battery-shepherding technology.

Businesses don’t want to insert PC cards in thousands of laptops; Centrino avoids that even if it’s nothing particularly special.

Posted by Glennf at April 4, 2003 8:10 AM

Categories: Hot Spot

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