Jason Dunn
05-12-2004, 06:30 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20040511S0001' target='_blank'>http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20040511S0001</a><br /><br /></div>"The 1394 Trade Association has approved a specification for the development of wireless FireWire applications, which will let 1394-enabled devices--both wired and unwired--to connect with each other.<br />“This spec came out six months early,” said James Snider, executive director of the association in an interview Tuesday. “Small start-up entrepreneurial companies are already going full bore on it. You'll be seeing some prototype products before the end of the year.” For example, Snider speculated that there could be plug-in cards for set-top boxes enabling wireless connection to DVD players and hard-disk drives. Bob Heile, chief technology officer of Appairent Inc., said his firm is already working on developing products to take advantage of the new wireless spec. He added that the initial products are likely to be somewhat experimental in nature."<br /><br />I heard about wireless FireWire well over a year ago, so it's been in development for some time now. It sounds great, and I'm a big fan of Firewire, but the question I have to ask is how are they going to be successful in getting consumer electronics companies to adopt wireless FireWire when they never got most of them to adopt wired FireWire?