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Intel backpedals on ambitious Wi-Fi plans

John G. Spooner and Richard Shim CNET News

Published: 28 Sep 2004 16:55 BST

Intel has snuffed out a plan to provide consumer desktop PCs with built-in Wi-Fi access points -- the latest wrinkle for the chipmaker, which has faced a number of product setbacks this year.

Intel had planned to deliver its Intel Wireless Connect product -- a bundle consisting of a special memory controller hub chip for its Intel Express 915 chipset, a Wi-Fi card and setup software -- to PC makers late this year. Intel had hoped that Wireless Connect would help popularise Wi-Fi networks, as the bundle would let a PC serve as a wireless networking hub for the home.

Although Wireless Connect would have added only about $50 to the cost of a PC, companies such as Dell already had their own Wi-Fi access points to sell to customers, and the devices could be found at retail for as little as $30.

The move shows a shift in Intel's digital home strategy. Instead of aiming to provide all of the nuts and bolts of the digital home Intel will stick to efforts such as designing new kinds of PCs -- its Entertainment PCs, for example -- and to driving digital home standards through efforts such as the Digital Living Network Alliance.

But while Intel still believes in the concept of building easy-to-use wireless-access points into consumer desktops, Leszinske said, it will leave the job of providing the pipeline for communications to others for now.

Intel's decision also changes the outlook for the market, said Synergy's Aaron Vance. "We were expecting negative growth on the routers side, based on efforts to embed them into desktops, as Intel announced...The same thing is happening on the client side (with Intel's Centrino notebook chip bundle), but now we expect healthy growth going forward," he said.

Even though more consumers are installing networks, and wireless networking is making its way into more products, plenty of work still needs to be done to improve it. And of the three major issues being addressed now -- faster speeds, greater coverage areas and more convenient network setups -- Intel has only really addressed setups.