During a Communications Design Conference in San Jose, experts agreed that wi-fi chips will show up in mobile phones in 2004.
The panelists generally agreed that while only large carriers have a reasonable business model for building public WiFi networks, 802.11 will nevertheless appear in phones starting next year. Earlier this year, Broadcom, Philips and TI launched low-power WiFi chip sets aimed at smart phones and wireless PDAs.
In another discussion, panelists disagreed with the moderator that Bluetooth is dead. "Philips is shipping millions of Bluetooth components a month. The headset is a primary application. It is also being used for synching PDAs and as a link for computer peripherals." said Marino of Philips.
"Thirty to 40 percent of all cellphones in the next few years will have Bluetooth," added ADI's Kermarrec.
The panel was generally upbeat on the outlook for ultrawideband technology, providing UWB sticks to applications for which it is well suited.
