July 16, 2007 4:00 AM PDT

Wireless USB gadgets trickle into marketplace

Wireless USB, a cable-free version of the ubiquitous device connection technology, is finally becoming a product and not just a promise.

Last week, Belkin announced a Wireless USB hub, and Lenovo debuted its T61p notebook, which will support Wireless USB as an option. This week, a raft of other PC and peripheral makers are expected to announce their products.

And not a moment too soon: Wireless USB (Universal Serial Bus) is arriving about a year later than promised. And other wireless communication standards, Bluetooth and 802.11 Wi-Fi networking, are established already.

"It's time for Wireless USB to move from the PowerPoint slides to the real world," said iSuppli analyst Jagdish Rebello.

If it lives up to its backers' hopes, it will spread in coming years to printers, hard drives, set-top boxes, cameras, digital music players and mobile phones. Several products, including PCs and hubs, are now in testing to receive the "Certified Wireless USB" logo, said Jeff Ravencraft, president and chairman of the USB Implementers Forum.

Chicken and egg
Like wired USB was more than a decade ago, Wireless USB is a classic example of a "chicken-and-egg" technology problem, where two parts of the industry depend on each other to make products useful. In the case of Wireless USB, the parties involved are, on the one hand, computer makers who must build Wireless USB support into their PCs and, on the other, device makers whose products are at the other end of those connections.

Wireless hub products could help jump-start the industry by bridging from the existing wired USB world to a wireless future, and Belkin competitors likely will announce their own products as soon as this week. Such systems typically have two components: a "dongle" that plugs into a PC's wired USB port and gives the computer Wireless USB abilities, and a hub with four wired USB ports for connecting current devices.

Photos: Wireless USB devices

The dongle can communicate with future Wireless USB-enabled products and, of course, with the hub. And next-generation PCs with Wireless USB built-in will be able to communicate with the hub and whatever wired USB devices are plugged into it. Wireless USB has a maximum range of about 30 feet but isn't designed to penetrate walls.

Strong backers of Wireless USB include companies such as Staccato Communications, WiQuest Communications and Alereon.

iSuppli expects the market for Wireless USB radio-communication chipsets to grow from $15 million in 2007 to $2.6 billion in 2011. That growth matches the expected spread of the technology, from 1 million Wireless USB-enabled devices this year to 500 million in 2011.

Much of Wireless USB will work like today's USB, only without the cables. But Mike Krell, Alereon's director of communications and business development, likes to paint pictures of new possibilities as well. For example, a digital camera user could store photos to a separate portable hard drive with much more capacity than a flash memory card, or download them to a photo-printing kiosk without worrying about having the right cable or memory card support. The user could also display the pictures on a big-screen TV on the other side of a room.

"I want to put my camera on the coffee table and look at them on a 60-inch screen," Krell said, and not be tethered by a short cable.

CONTINUED: The adoption rate...
Page 1 | 2
Add a Comment (Log in or register) 35 comments (Showing first 20 comments)
Still giggling
by IlanaGolan July 16, 2007 8:46 AM PDT
I'm having a fine giggle at being the first comment on this article. What's wrong guys? No opportunity in this one for Mac-MS bashing?
Reply to this comment View reply
Why bash?
by ewelch July 16, 2007 9:44 AM PDT
The article was pretty accurate. It was Apple's iMac that finally
broke the chicken-egg logjam. Peripheral makers finally had a
computer that broke completely with the old interfaces (serial
and parallel) and gave them something to create USB peripherals
for. PCs then followed quickly after that.

Just like WiFi, Apple was a year ahead of the rest with putting
the capability in all of their laptops. Dell was second almost a
year to day day later.

But when the rest took off with USB, they quickly outpaced even
Apple's superior Firewire technology. So now even iPods have
gone with the much slower USB 2 interface. (Theoretical limits
are a joke, Firewire 400 is much faster in actual practice.)

If Apple was smart, they'd put wireless USB in the new iMac due
out soon and take the lead once more. Maybe with their
increasing market share (growing twice as fast as PCs these
days) they could have a faster impact on the overall industry.
Dell, I'm betting would follow within months.
Reply to this comment View reply
Why?
by cuwickliffe July 16, 2007 10:09 AM PDT
Just at first glance, I don't understand why we need wireless USB. Bluetooth does exactly the same thing, and already works at the same range. What's the advantage?
Reply to this comment View all 2 replies
AM I THE ONLY ONE ON CRAZY PILLS??!??
by flitcraft33 July 16, 2007 12:21 PM PDT
Hello, make a wi-fi USB dongle that plugs into ANY USB port and wirelessly connects to a hub. Have a slot in the hub where you plug in the dongles that imprints a network serial number unique to the hub so your devices only connect to your devices.

Make the dongle a USB-wireless bridge. VOILA! no more ^&(&^($!! usb cables for ANYTHING. Make the dongles port powered.

WHY IS THIS SO HARD???? What are these people thinking with this chicken and egg BS??? Just make it work with existing devices effortlessly.

Jeeze, if I had some venture capital I would market it myself. This is not rocket science.

Dan Sichel
Reply to this comment View reply
This will only allow hackers
by Troll Hard July 16, 2007 12:28 PM PDT
to break into your personal USB connections.

What were they thinking, man?
Reply to this comment View all 2 replies
Wireless USB
by Michael00360 July 16, 2007 3:31 PM PDT
I'm looking forward to the day that I can finally get rid of all my cables on my computer (except for the power cable. However, being that this is new technology I am willing to wait until the bugs are worked out. I hope that with this wireless technology they will go ahead and implement some kind of WPA type technology like we see in wireless routers.
Reply to this comment View reply
Why the need for a hub?
by whizkid454 July 16, 2007 5:57 PM PDT
Couldn't the Wireless USB "ports" be built into the motherboard of the computer? This would eliminate the wired connection from the hub to the physical, wired USB port. I guess this wireless hub is temporary until the technology itself is built into the motherboards?
Reply to this comment View all 2 replies
Wow.... to point something out here..
by ethana2 July 16, 2007 6:47 PM PDT
usb is inferior. And that's because it capped bandwidth: a good protocol will scale up to whatever hardware will handle. Multiple pins included. I want a protocol that will scale from wimax to pci-e.

And I don't think that's as far fetched as it sounds. More on that idea at http://www.ethana4.blogspot.com/
under "usb 3.0"

tell me what you think- ethana2@gmail.com
Reply to this comment
 See all 35 Comments >>
Powered by Jive Software
advertisement

Latest tech news headlines

RSS Feeds

Add headlines from CNET News.com to your homepage or feedreader.

More feeds available in our RSS feed index.

advertisement

Inside CNET News

Scroll Left Scroll Right