Falling prices and new technologies that continue to make wireless LANs speedier will bring a surge in corporate use with total revenue in that market reaching nearly US$4.6 billion by 2005, according to new research from Cahners In-Stat Group.
Wireless LANs will be pushed, as in the past, by “Wi-Fi” (wireless fidelity) products, including IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) products using the 802.11b and 802.11g standards, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based market researcher said. Wares from low-cost, high-volume vendors will push the market, with prices falling substantially, and quickly, next year. Wireless LAN products will become more prevalent outside of North America and that will further spur the market, Cahners In-Stat found.
XP beta testers face incompatibility issue
The risks of testing beta software hit home for Xerox Corp. when an incompatibility between a Cisco System Inc. switch and a beta version of Microsoft Corp.’s upcoming Windows XP operating system caused three network outages in a building at its El Segundo, Calif., facility.
A Xerox e-mail newsletter indicated that the outages happened between March 30 and April 4, after an unspecified number of employees installed a beta version of Windows XP in violation of the office equipment maker’s corporate policy, according to company spokeswoman Kara Choquette. Xerox prohibits unauthorized software use. Through a routine newsletter, the company reminded employees not to install unauthorized software on their computers. Although the company addressed the problem by taking the Windows XP beta out of its systems, Choquette said the outage was “not an issue with Microsoft software, but with equipment from a third-party vendor” that she didn’t name.
Top Lotus partner moves to support Exchange
Lotus Development Corp.’s top business partner made a significant move recently to add Microsoft Exchange support to its collection of tools for building enterprise collaborative applications.
IT Factory announced it will acquire ECMS, one of the leading developers of collaboration and messaging software for the Exchange platform. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The ECMS acquisition now positions IT Factory to deliver collaborative applications that will run on both the Notes and Exchange platforms, which could greatly simplify corporate deployment of those types of applications.