News

Wireless modules in PC notebooks; Taiwan wins

The boom in wireless LAN is still young; but already, the bulk of the business is going to modem makers in Taiwan, who are adding the new protocols to their modules, says a report.

"In landing WLAN module contracts, Taiwan's 56K modem makers have the advantage of development experience and established relations with PC vendors. PC vendors value product quality and technical support, and not simply low price, in choosing WLAN module suppliers," reports DigiTimes reporter Chou Hua-hsin

Prices are not low; a dual-standard module with modem and WLAN circuits sells to the big PC builders such as Hewlett-Packard (buying from Ambit) and NEC (also an Ambit customer) for around $65. If this is accurate, then it would seem that PC makers are subsidising these extra features, since the incremental cost of including them in the order is often around this much - or less.

Ambit, Askey - who supplies Sony and NEC, - and ActionTec, who supplies IBM, all say they expect big orders - "tens of thousands of WLAN modules a month," says Hua-hsin - from Toshiba and Dell Computer, industry sources predict.