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Frank Hanzlik, managing director of the Wi-Fi Alliance, thinks it’s a happy accident that the 3,000th product the industry group has certified for interoperability just happens to be a Wi-Fi/cellular phone from Motorola (the multi-mode Motorola A910, at right).

"It's a great example of how Wi-Fi is moving from massive success in notebooks — with probably 90% of the market [using Wi-Fi] — to other categories of products," Hanzlik says. "Categories that could someday eclipse the PC."

That's 3,000 products since March of 2000, when certification testing began -- though that's not to say there are 3,000 Wi-Fi products you can buy today. Hanzlik says of the wireless networking lifecycle, especially for consumer products, "If a product lasts a year, that's a long time." He didn't want to speculate on the number of products available today with the Wi-Fi Certified seal of approval.

Computers will likely be using Wi-Fi for a long time to come, but the Alliance wants to stay relevant by continuing to test for important new features as well as testing new products.

Fixed/Mobile Convergence
The Alliance soon plans to announce results from its partnership with the CTIA. "It's along the lines of making a joint working group to certify phones with Wi-Fi, the check for best-of-breed abilities... we want all those technologies [GSM, CDMA, EV-DO, etc.] to work with Wi-Fi," Hanzlik says. This testing has implications for both enterprise and consumer products. Hanzlik says "key stakeholders" are at the table working with the Alliance and CTIA. Expect the first batch of Wi-Fi Certified convergence phones to debut in the fall, before the holiday shopping season.

"There's strategies from various types of carriers — those out earliest probably had UMA networks," Hanzlik says. "Some are going more SIP-based... there's stuff starting to happen. Some operators may have a more data-centric approach, some may do data and voice. We'll see a lot of experimentation. This is a nascent space; we'll figure the best ways to go to market."

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