Wireless Mobile Internet Technology: When you think of mobility innovators, Intel may not top the list. After all, the company that decades ago unleashed Moore's Law on the mass market still earns most of its revenue selling chips for PCs and servers.

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Introduction

Intel Senior Fellow Kevin Kahn can't remember how to use dialup internet access—evidence of the pace of change in mobility.

By Geoff Koch, Intel Corp.

When you think of mobility innovators, Intel may not top the list. After all, the company that decades ago unleashed Moore's Law on the mass market still earns most of its revenue selling chips for PCs and servers. (According to the 2005 Annual Report [PDF 702KB], nearly 65 percent of Intel's 2005 revenue came from its Digital Enterprise Group, the unit that focuses mostly on supplying components to the PCs and servers used by businesses.)

But balance sheets don't tell the whole story. In January 2003, the company announced Intel® Centrino® mobile technology, which includes a processor and related chipsets for Wi-Fi capability. It was a curious move since, at the time, wireless hot spots still were relatively novel, especially in the home. Earlier that month, in an article about cities setting up wireless networks, The New York Times still was describing Wi-Fi as merely an "increasingly popular standard."

By March 2005, the Times was writing that Wi-Fi "has reshaped the way millions of Americans go online, letting them tap into high-speed Internet connections effortlessly at home and in many public places." No, Intel didn't invent the idea of a wireless laptop. But through advertising campaigns, collaborations with fellow travelers and an ability to rapidly scale a new technology, Intel helped push the industry past the Wi-Fi tipping point.

Of course, nearly ubiquitous Wi-Fi is merely one step toward a truly mobile future. Intel Senior Fellow Kevin Kahn has ideas about the promises and perils further down the path. Kahn, who also directs Intel's Communications Technology Lab, sees a need for more seamless cell phone-like roaming, better radios, and smaller and more energy-efficient devices. He appeared* on the PodTech Network in Spring 2006 with host John Furrier for a brief bit of future-telling. Excerpts appear below.