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WiFi Alliance takes 500 approvals to Comdex

Half a grand - enough to spend on the Las Vegas tables! - and that's the number of WiFi approved products which the Alliance will be able to list at its Comdex booth this week.

The count has been increased by 142 additional Wi-Fi products approved "certified" as compatible with the standard, in the past four months.

Since testing began in March of 2002, 509 Wi-Fi product certifications have been awarded to 98 Wi-Fi Alliance member companies. This four-month period saw the addition of 15 new companies seeking Wi-Fi certification for their products for a total of 98 companies offering Wi-Fi CERTIFIED products.

"WiFi certifications continue to set an impressive pace with a forty percent increase over the prior period," said WECA chairman Dennis Eaton. "Looking at the numbers a little closer reveals some very interesting trends. First, two new categories of WiFi certified products have emerged – WiFi Cable modems and WiFi DSL modems. We are also seeing the certification rate of mPCI cards (cards that go inside laptops and PDAs) increase and PC cards decline slightly. As more laptops are shipped with WiFi built in, mPCI cards take over their share of the market. In addition, WiFi Compact Flash card certifications are increasing as WiFi is used in smaller devices, Eaton added.

Wi-Fi wireless LANs will be on display at COMDEX (Booth 3160), November 18-22, in Las Vegas, Nevada.