[Ti] What is this going to do to Apple, and its laptops?

[Massimo Marino]

On Thursday, March 13, 2003, at 08:04 PM, PowerBook G4 Titanium List 
wrote:

> Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 11:18:47 -0600
> From: Kynan Shook <kshook at mac.com>
> Subject: Re: [Ti] What is this going to do to Apple, and its laptops?
> Message-id: <D9E3ED2E-5577-11D7-B848-003065D64684 at mac.com>
>
>
[...]

> FWIW, Centrino will soon ship with one of the faster 802.11 variants (I
> forget which, but I think g), but the chipset wasn't ready soon enough
> to be included on the first version.

uhm, nope.
centrino comes with 802.11b <------- from Intel press release: 
http://www.intel.com/products/mobiletechnology/wireless.htm

Form an article on
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/29734.html

> "Apple at least has always acknowledged AirPort's foundation on a 
> standard. Not so Intel. Certainly, when asked, company representatives 
> acknowledge the fact that it is, but at no point during Centrino's 
> coming out party in London last night were 'Wi-Fi' or '802.11' 
> mentioned.
> That might be dismissed as the enthusiasm of the company at the launch 
> of its latest product. But this unwillingness to mention the 'w' word 
> extends to Intel's hotspot roll-out programme. Intel's vision is to 
> have sites co-branded by Centrino, Intel and the network operator. The 
> name of the actual standard on which this is all based doesn't get a 
> look-in.
> The concern is that the growing population of notebook users - and it 
> is a growing market segment, one of the few (if not the only) 
> expanding areas in the IT business - will associate wireless 
> networking not with an open, interoperable standard but with a 
> vendor-specific brand.

The last statement essentially is same thought I had by reading the 
news/rumors on wireless centrino-based-only services.  I might be 
entirely wrong and time will tell but it looks that although you will 
be able to disable centrino  you might then have no more access to the 
same services when using a regular external wireless card, services 
which might have tempted you to buy a centrino PC.

IF (big if) that is the case then the issue is not to trivially get a 
new wireless card for - say 802.11x - where x is whatever after g -. 
You can do this on a TiBook or on a PC with an external card but doing 
the same on a centrino PC might mean losing those services which might 
check whether you are or not centrino-wireless user.

Intel press release above says:
> your computer must be configured with Wi-Fi certified technology so 
> you can connect with other Wi-Fi certified products.

All of this might well be speculations but still there might be network 
services which will grant you (for a fee?!) access ONLY if you have a 
centrino PC and not a wirelessly connected PC.

> The thought won't be 'I need a Wi-Fi-compatible system to connect to 
> the Internet on the move' but 'I need a Centrino system to connect to 
> the Internet on the move'. That's the power of branding. "

I am not trying to say "Intel is evil" but there are some tell signs 
that makes one wonder what Intel really plans to do with so called 
"centrino Wi-Fi certified products".

Cheers

	Massimo