Wireless

As Apple and Research In Motion have won a greater share in the Wi-Fi handset market over the past year, Nokia has lost share.

Though Nokia is still the leading vendor for dual-mode smartphones (Wi-Fi and cellular), its market share dropped to 35 percent in the second quarter, compared with 50 percent in the same period a year ago, according to a report released Monday from In-Stat.

The report "Wi-Fi in Mobile Phones: Dual Mode Becomes the In Thing" tracked the major Wi-Fi phone vendors, including Nokia, Apple, Research In Motion, HTC, and Samsung. Among those, Apple has enjoyed the greatest growth in market share, from 3 percent in the second quarter of 2008 to 20 percent in this year's second quarter.

Market share for both RIM and Samsung has also weakened the past few quarters, though less so than Nokia's. RIM's 15.7 percent chunk of the market for the second quarter of the year was down from its first-quarter high of 17.6 percent. Samsung's share has been relatively flat but usually dips a bit from the first to the second quarter, notes In-Stat.

In sheer unit volume, Nokia has done well the past few quarters, with 9.3 million Wi-Fi handsets shipped in the second quarter of the year compared with Apple's 5.2 million shipments. However, Nokia's shipments have dropped since the first quarter of 2008 when it saw 12 million units fly out the door. Over the same period, Apple, RIM, and HTC have seen their shipments grow.

As the No. 2 Wi-Fi handset vendor, Apple has also outsold third-place RIM in dual-mode phone shipments, says In-Stat. Though RIM still has a larger market presence, not all of its Blackberry devices include Wi-Fi. HTC and Samsung rounded out In-Stat's list as the fourth and fifth top Wi-Fi handset vendors, respectively.

(Credit: In-Stat)

The report also detailed the growth of the Wi-Fi smartphone market overall. The industry shipped 37 million handsets in 2007, and 103 million units in 2008. That rise is because of several factors, notes In-Stat, including greater functionality, lower prices, and carrier promotions. Initially targeted to the business market, smartphones are also now an entrenched hit with consumers, which In-Stat attributes to the success of the iPhone.

Wi-Fi handset shipments are expected to rise just 25 percent to 128.4 million units for 2009. That compares with a nearly 180 percent jump in 2008.

But In-Stat sees gains ahead. By 2010, the growth rate is likely to climb to 43 percent. Though that rate may not be sustainable, it should remain strong in the coming years. Wi-Fi will also become more prevalent in mobile phones. This year, 11.5 percent of handsets include Wi-Fi; by 2012, that figure will grow to 25 percent, predicts In-Stat.

To compile the report, In-Stat relied on its own data as well as interviews with Wi-Fi equipment vendors.

Travelers flying on Virgin America over the holidays will get free in-flight Wi-Fi thanks to Google, the companies said Monday.

Google and Virgin America are teaming up to offer free Wi-Fi Internet service for all Virgin America passengers traveling between November 10, 2009, and January 15, 2010.

The Gogo Wi-Fi service, which was rolled out to Virgin America's entire fleet of planes in May, is normally available for $12.95 for flights of over three hours. It's $9.95 for flights between one and a half hours and three hours. Flights of less than an hour and a half are $5.95. There's a special deal for people using smartphones and other Wi-Fi enabled handhelds that costs $7.95 for flights over one and a half hours.

Virgin America estimates that between 12 percent and 15 percent of its customers are using the Gogo Wi-Fi service. On some of its cross-country flights, between 20 percent and 25 percent of its passengers are using the service.

"Since the launch of Wi-Fi on all of our planes, we've seen an overwhelmingly positive response from travelers," Porter Gale, vice president of marketing at Virgin America, said in a statement.

Virgin America hopes that offering the Wi-Fi service will help it win more customers. In a recent survey the airline conducted it found that more than half the respondents said that Wi-Fi would influence their choice of airline. Google and Virgin America are calling the free Wi-Fi promotion a gift to their customers. But for Virgin America it is also a way to give customers a taste of the inflight Wi-Fi service, which will hopefully whet their appetite for Internet service on future Virgin America flights.

A new Wi-Fi specification will let wireless devices discover and connect to one another without a router.

The spec, called Wi-Fi Direct, was announced Wednesday by the Wi-Fi Alliance, the industry group that promotes the technology. By making it much easier for devices to connect directly to each other using Wi-Fi, the new spec could pose a challenge to wireless technologies such Bluetooth.

The way Wi-Fi Direct works is that it allows Wi-Fi-enabled devices such as phones, cameras, printers, computers, keyboards, and headphones to connect to other Wi-Fi devices individually or to multiple devices at once. The spec will support standard Wi-Fi data rates, and devices will be able to connect to one another within about 100 meters of each other. This would allow just about any device that has Wi-Fi built into it to use wireless broadband instead of Bluetooth. It could even eliminate the need for Wi-Fi routers in some places.

The new spec will turn gadgets into mini Wi-Fi access points, which means that it could reduce the need for home Wi-Fi routers. It could also hurt Bluetooth, which is widely used to provide similar peer-to-peer connections between devices. For example, Bluetooth technology connects headsets to music players and cell phones. And it's used to provide other high-speed wireless connections over short distances between other devices. The new Wi-Fi Direct specification would offer the same function.

Ad hoc wireless connections are already supported via the current Wi-Fi standard. But the Wi-Fi Direct specification would make it easier for devices to discover each other and connect. The Wi-Fi Alliance plans to publish the new peer-to-peer Wi-Fi specification soon and says it will begin certifying devices for Wi-Fi Direct in 2010.

Following the finalization of the Wireless-N (802.11n) standard, the Wi-Fi Alliance, a nonprofit group that tests and certifies wireless products to ensure they interoperate, launched on Tuesday its new test program that supports the final specs of the standard.

This certification is still necessary because, according to Kelly Davis-Felner, marketing director of the Wi-Fi Alliance, the final specs include a lot of options and items that vendors could interpret differently, which could lead to products that don't work with each other. "Our certification program ensures that the product conforms with the final standard and interoperates with others." Felner added.

The new logo you want to seek when shopping for wireless networking products in the near future.

(Credit: Wi-Fi Alliance)

The new certification program is basically the same as the one used for the Draft N 2.0, with the addition of a few tests for new optional features, including:

• Test support for simultaneous transmission of up to three spatial streams
• Packet aggregation (A-MPDU), to make data transfers more efficient
• Space-time block coding (STBC), a multiple-antenna encoding technique to improve reliability in some environments
• Channel coexistence measures for "good neighbor" behavior when using 40 MHz operation in the 2.4 GHz band

Davis-Felner also confirmed that all existing Wi-Fi Certified Draft N products will interoperate with the new Wi-Fi Certified N products. The reason for this is because the final standard only adds more options on top of the specs supported by the Draft N 2.0 without any major changes.

This also means most of the existing Draft N products can be upgraded to receive the final specs via firmware. However, once upgraded, they will need to be tested again to be certified with the final N specs.

Currently, there's not yet any Wi-Fi Certified N products on the market but there are a few vendors that have submitted their hardware to be to be used in the interoperability test bed, and their devices will be the first to become Wi-Fi Certified N products with the new testing program. These devices include:

• Atheros XSPAN Dual-band 2.4/5GHz PCIe MiniCard for Computing Designs, Full MIMO Configuration
• Atheros XSPAN Dual-band, Dual-concurrent 2.4/5GHz, Gigabit Reference
Platform for AP/Routers, Full MIMO configuration
• Broadcom Intensifi Dual-Band 802.11n Client Reference Design
• Broadcom Intensifi XLR Dual-Band 802.11n Router Reference Design
• Intel Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300
• Marvell Smart Wi-Fi 802.11n 3x3 450 Mbps Dual-Band Access Point
• Ralink 3x3 AP

It's unclear when any of these will be available but you can expect to buy some by the end of the year.

Finally, the Draft will now be taken off this logo.

As predicted last month, the IEEE has finally approved the 802.11n high-throughput wireless LAN standard.

Finalization of the new wireless networking standard--which is capable of delivering throughput speeds up to 300 megabits per second (and even higher)--took exactly seven years from the day it was conceived, or six years from the first draft version. The standard has been through a dozen or so draft versions.

News of the ratification broke via a blog post displaying an e-mail sent by Bruce Kraemer, longtime chairman of the 802.11n Task Group, to task group members. There has been no public announcement yet. Update 5:49 p.m. PDT: A press release has been issued.

(The 802.11n Task Group is part of the 802.11 Working Group, which oversees WLAN (wireless local-area network) standards. Task group members include the majority of Wi-Fi chipmakers, software developers, and equipment OEM vendors. Meru Networks, one of the members, posted the blog that broke the news.)

It's likely, however, that final approval of the standard will be publicly announced by September 15, the date when Meru Networks puts on a public Webcast to provide answers about the ratification.

According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, the group that tests and certifies wireless products to ensure their interoperability, all existing Wi-Fi Certified Draft N wireless products will still work with the final standard.

802.11n offers much higher speeds than the previous, already-ratified 802.11g, which caps at only 54Mbps. Due to the compelling higher speed, most wireless vendors haven been offering 802.11n-based (also known as Wireless-N) products during the past six years and calling them Draft N products. Now the Draft is no more.

According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, most, if not all, of the existing equipment can be upgraded to the final specification via a firmware update. Finally, all future wireless networking products will be compatible with today's products that have been Wi-Fi-certified.

Wi-Fi Internet access could help airlines win over customers who are looking to stay connected while en route, a recent survey concludes.

(Credit: American Airlines)

According to a study published this week by Wakefield Research for the Wi-Fi Alliance, about 75 percent of frequent business travelers surveyed said they'd choose an airline based on whether the flight has Wi-Fi or not. Half of respondents said they'd even consider moving their reservation by a day to get on a flight that offered Wi-Fi. And more than 70 percent of those surveyed said they'd rather have Wi-Fi access on board a flight than a meal provided by the airline.

Since last year, several airlines have been adding Wi-Fi to their planes. Delta, American Airlines, Virgin America, Alaska Airlines, and AirTran are just a few that have already begun to offer the service. Southwest Airlines announced earlier this month that it plans to offer Wi-Fi on its planes starting in the first quarter of next year.

Typically, these services cost about $12 or $13 per flight. The survey did not take into account the cost of the service. But given the popularity of Wi-Fi hotspots in airports and in various restaurants and cafes, the price doesn't appear to be a major barrier.

The survey included 480 frequent business travelers, of whom 150 had used in-flight Wi-Fi in early August. About 95 percent of respondents said Wi-Fi access on a flight would make them more productive. And about half of those responding said they had often taken red-eye flights so they could be reached during business hours.

But the Wi-Fi Alliance emphasized that in-flight Wi-Fi is not just for business travelers. Other travelers also use the service. About 72 percent of those surveyed say they use it to check personal e-mail. About 49 percent say they use the in-flight Wi-Fi to surf the Web. And about 35 percent use it to stream video or music.

Verizon Communications has had a change of heart about using Wi-Fi to extend its wireless broadband offering as the company announces free access to Wi-Fi hot spots for its Fios and DSL Internet customers.

On Monday the company announced that customers subscribed to its Verizon Fios Internet service with 20Mbps per second downstream and 15Mbps upstream or faster and customers who subscribe to its 3Mbps/768 Kbps or higher DSL service will be able to connect to Verizon Wi-Fi hot spots, at no additional charge as part of their broadband service.

Verizon has partnered with the Wi-Fi service Boingo to offer access in thousands of locations throughout the U.S. including hotels, airports, restaurants, coffee shops, retailers, convention centers and public locations across the U.S. The company has a Web page where customers can locate these Verizon hot spots. For example, in New York City, the service is available at many Barnes & Noble bookstores, as well as at JFK airport, and in some Starbucks locations.

For the past few years, Verizon has downplayed the importance of Wi-Fi. The company experimented with deploying its own Wi-Fi hot spots several years ago in New York City, turning old phone booths into wireless hot spots. The service never took off, and Verizon dismantled the hotspots. The company was also a vocal critic of many municipal Wi-Fi projects, including the one in Philadelphia.

Instead Verizon has always pushed its 3G wireless network and more recently it's soon-to-be-built 4G wireless network as a perfect solution for its subscribers on the go.

But as other broadband providers start offering Wi-Fi access for free with their services, it seems that Verizon has decided to jump on the Wi-Fi bandwagon. AT&T has been offering free Wi-Fi to its high-speed Internet customers for more than two years. And cable operator Cablevision, which competes in Verizon's territory, launched its Wi-Fi service last year. Cablevision and Comcast have teamed up to provide free Wi-Fi access to their subscribers who commute by offering the service on train platforms .

Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe argues that the Verizon offering is better than what cable offers because it is available nationwide. The cable Wi-Fi networks are only available regionally where the cable providers operate.

Rabe stopped short of admitting that Verizon has changed its tune when it comes to Wi-Fi. He said the company is merely answering the demand from its customers.

"I would call this an expansion of the way we see mobility," he said in a phone interview. "We are broadening how people access the Internet when they aren't at home. And we're doing it because our customers have told us it's what they want."

Rabe does not think that the new Wi-Fi offering will cut into the company's wireless broadband business, which requires a monthly service and contract to get access to the company's 3G wireless network on laptops. This service costs about $60 a month for up to 5GB of Internet usage a month. While the speeds on the 3G network are slower than when using a Wi-Fi hot spot, the wireless broadband card offers access to the Net wherever Verizon's 3G cellular network is available.

"Our cellular 3G network allows people to be truly mobile," he said. "And you can't do that with hot spots. So I don't think it will compete at all with our wireless broadband service. There will still be a lot of users, particularly business customers, who still want the reliability and ubiquity of 3G wireless."

Verizon has also been touting its new 4G wireless network, which will be in trials later this year in Seattle and Boston. The new network, which uses a technology called LTE, or Long Term Evolution, will go live commercially in 2010. The company expects to have the entire network built out by 2013. Verizon's plan is for the 4G network to provide wireless connectivity to a whole range of devices other than cell phones, laptops, and Netbooks.

Rabe said that any Wi-Fi device that can download "access credentials" from the Verizon Web site, should be able to access the Wi-Fi hot spots. Some Windows Mobile phones may be able to access to the Wi-Fi hot spots, but he isn't certain that that is the case. And he could not confirm whether the Apple iPhone would be able to connect to the Verizon hot spots. AT&T , which is the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone, already offers free Net access to iPhone users in its more than 20,000 hot spots.

The latest version of the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard is close to final ratification.

802.11n is much faster and of higher bandwidth than its predecessor, 802.11g. Last Friday, the 802.11 working group--a subset of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)--held its final approval vote on the standard, according to Trapeze Networks' Matthew Gast, a member of the working group.

Gast blogged Monday that the vote was passed overwhelmingly, after which the working group passed the standard on to the "higher layers" of the IEEE 802 wireless standards group for publication.

Those higher layers voted unanimously to approve the standard, and 802.11n has now gone to the IEEE Standards Board Review Committee for final approval on September 11.

"In an interesting twist, 11 September is a date relevant to the history of 802.11n," Gast wrote. "Bruce Kraemer, the longtime chair of Task Group N and the current chair of the 802.11 working group, noted that the first meeting of the 'High Throughput Study Group', the precursor to (Task Group N), was 11 September, 2002. If approved, the 802.11n effort will have taken exactly seven years, at least by one measure."

Delays over the final ratification of 802.11n led many manufacturers of Wi-Fi equipment and PCs to start implementing the specification in 2007, ahead of ratification, under the "Draft 2.0" moniker. As a result, the high-speed technology is already found in many devices today.

David Meyer of ZDNet UK reported from London.

Matthew Gast, a voting member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), suggested in his recent blog that the current Wireless-N (or 802.11n Draft) specification is going to be finalized in September.

The logo you should look for when buying wireless networking products.

If this is true, that would mean the specification took about seven years to become finalized from the day it was conceived.

So what does it mean for consumers? Apparently not much, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance, the group that tests and certifies wireless networking products to ensure their interoperability.

The group announced Thursday that it will not change the baseline requirements of its 802.11n certification program, and plans to make only small optional additions to address the finalization of the 802.11n standard. The updated test program will preserve interoperability with more than 600 Wi-Fi-certified 802.11n draft 2.0 products released since June 2007, while adding testing for some optional features now included in the final standard.

The optional features to be tested in the final standard include:

• Packet aggregation (A-MPDU), to make data transfers more efficient
• Space-time Block Coding (STBC), a multiple-antenna transmission technique to improve performance in some environments
• Channel coexistence measures for "good neighbor" behavior when using 40 MHz operation
• Testing for devices supporting three spatial streams

This means if you have bought yourself a Wi-Fi-certified wireless product--and you should only buy a wireless networking product that has been Wi-Fi-certified-- it will be working just fine once the spec has become final. Any new features of the final standard will likely be made available to that product via firmware.

For networking vendors, this is also good news. Because all Wi-Fi-certified draft 2.0 products meet the core requirements of--and interoperate with--the updated program, they will be eligible to use the approved 802.11n logo without retesting.

Though not yet finalized, 802.11n draft 2.0 products have been widely accepted across consumer and enterprise markets. According to ABI Research forecasts, among wireless networking standards, including 802.11b and 802.11g, shipments of Wireless-N (802.11n) products will reach 45 percent this year and grow to nearly 60 percent in 2012.