802.11g Standard Draws A Crowd

In-Stat/MDR's most recent Wi-Fi market report noted a 6 percent increase in total Wi-Fi hardware revenue, to $730 million in the second quarter, up from $690 million in the first quarter.

SOHO and SMB networking vendors such as Cisco Systems' Linksys, Irvine, Calif.; Buffalo Technology, Austin, Texas; D-Link, Irvine; Netgear, Santa Clara, Calif.; and SMC Networks, Irvine, have aggressively pushed out 802.11g products over the past few months.

STATE OF THE MARKET

>> Total number of 802.11g access points and client units shipped in 2Q '03: 1.7 million.
>> Total Wi-Fi hardware revenue: 1Q '03: $690 million; 2Q '03: $730 million
>> Total Wi-Fi hardware units shipped: 1Q '03: 6.9 million; 2Q '03: 9.9 million

SOURCE: In-STAT/MDR

Jeff Loomer, sales manager at Level Computers, a Fullerton, Calif.-based VAR, said he has been selling more and more 802.11g routers. Level Computers' biggest-selling vendors in the wireless area are Linksys and D-Link, he said.

"A lot of people have been ordering, and upgrading, from [802.11b] to [802.11g] to get the faster speed," Loomer said. "I'm starting to see a lot of small businesses and more schools [buying 802.11g products]."

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Loomer said sales of wireless products from PCI cards to USB cards have increased since last year. However, the products still aren't selling as well as software and hardware from leading vendors such as Microsoft, he said.

Among the newest round of 802.11g products coming out is an SMC SMB/SOHO 802.11g adapter that installs and communicates without drivers. It is scheduled to ship in November with an MSRP of $129.99, the company said. The adapter,the SMC2870W 2.4GHz 54-Mbps Wireless Multi-Mode Device,can be configured to serve as a wireless access point and provide network access to other wireless 802.11g and 802.11b devices.

Tony Stramandinoli, director of marketing at SMC, said the key benefit for solution providers is the new product's function as a repeater. When it acts as a repeater, the SMC2870W can extend the range of a wireless 2.4GHz network using either a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint configuration, Stramandinoli said.

D-Link, meanwhile, recently released a free firmware upgrade for its Xtreme G wireless networking line of products. The upgrade promises tested results of 50-Mbps consistent data rate throughput,more than the 30 Mbps that the IEEE says is the current maximum WLAN speed.

Rusty Beard, senior systems engineer at Advanced Systems Group, a Tustin, Calif.-based solution provider, said his company is warming up to 802.11g after some internal success using SMC's WLAN products.

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SOHO, SMB networking vendors hope that their new Wi-Fi products are just the ticket.

"[802.11g] has proven to be lightning fast, offering wireless ranges I didn't think were possible and speed at a distance I didn't think was really [doable] in the notebook product category," Beard said. "I see it rapidly becoming the de facto standard."

While Advanced Systems hasn't yet deployed any 802.11g solutions for its customers, its own staff is 100 percent set up on 802.11g, he said, courtesy of SMC products. Beard said that so far he's found SMC's Barricade G 802.11g router easy to set up and ready to go within 5 minutes of taking it out of the box.

Some solution providers that serve enterprise customers said they are waiting for a Cisco 802.11g enterprise product line before moving from 802.11b.

"Our customers have expressed an interest in [802.11g], but most have expressed an interest in deploying Cisco, and [it hasn't] yet come out with [an 802.11g] product line," said Tom Hagin, vice president of sales at solution provider NetXperts, San Francisco.

Hagin said most of his customers have a Cisco infrastructure, and the wireless products from vendors such as Linksys, although a division of Cisco, are not really designed for the enterprise.