Com One's Phoenix Wi-Fi Radio a Good Example of Wi-Fi's Proliferation Into CE

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Tuesday - May 13, 2008

Analyst perspectives on key wireless industry topics including mobile devices, network infrastructure, mobile operators, mobile content, and short range wireless connectivity.

Com One's Phoenix Wi-Fi Radio a Good Example of Wi-Fi's Proliferation Into CE
Author: Philip Solis, Principal Analyst, Mobile Broadband
Fri, 7 Mar 2008 17:53:03 EST

ABI Research has always expected Wi-Fi to proliferate in consumer electronics. It has very quickly in some ways, such as in portable game devices - the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP. However, Wi-Fi's attach rate has been slower going into audio and video. Understandable, for video, the newer 802.11n standard is really what is required to make HD video work flawlessly. Audio has much less of a speed requirement, so today's popular 802.11g standard is more than adequate.

Com One's Phoenix Wi-Fi Radio is a good example of a Wi-Fi enabled audio device. It's Wi-Fi radio connects it to your access point for Internet access, allowing the device to access Internet radio channels. Some of the channels do not reliably stream their audio, so they are hard to connect to, and others have too many people connecting to them, so they hardly ever allow you to connect to that channel. Those are problems with the servers streaming those stations though, and not problems with the device. For the channels that are reliable, this device can be easily connected two floors away from the access point and reliably stream music. The device is not the most aesthetically pleasing, nor has the best sound quality, but it is plenty good enough for a bedroom, for example.

Since there are relatively few of these types of devices from mainstream CE manufacturers, it is devices like this that will probably cause more CE manufacturers to add Wi-Fi / Internet functionality to their devices in order to remain competitve.

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