3 results
3 - Creating a wireless LAN standard: IEEE 802.11
- Wolter Lemstra, Technische Universiteit Delft, The Netherlands, Vic Hayes, Technische Universiteit Delft, The Netherlands, John Groenewegen, Technische Universiteit Delft, The Netherlands
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- Book:
- The Innovation Journey of Wi-Fi
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 18 November 2010, pp 53-109
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Summary
The start of wireless LAN product development
After the wireless LAN feasibility study had ended with positive results, the development team in Utrecht persuaded the Retail Systems Division, the internal customer, that it would be best if product development was also carried out by the same team. Inevitably, this outcome was not achieved without some internal ‘turf battles’ between the Financial Systems Division and the Retail Systems Division. Again, the debate was decided on the basis of the availability of the necessary radio and communications expertise.
In the spring of 1988 the team set out to develop a wireless network interface card (wireless NIC) in order to create a wireless LAN, to be used in vertical applications in the retail markets that NCR was serving. The NIC would have to operate in the 902 to 928 MHz band, the lower band as assigned by the FCC for unlicensed use (FCC, 1985). This lower band was selected so as to provide the maximum possible range, as opposed to the ISM bands at 2.4 and 5 GHz, which have higher levels of attenuation. Another reason was to reduce the cost of the electronics, as at that time radio-processing components above 1 GHz were expensive, on account of the level of technology that was required and the relatively low volume of business.
4 - Crossing the chasm: the Apple AirPort
- Wolter Lemstra, Technische Universiteit Delft, The Netherlands, Vic Hayes, Technische Universiteit Delft, The Netherlands, John Groenewegen, Technische Universiteit Delft, The Netherlands
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- Book:
- The Innovation Journey of Wi-Fi
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 18 November 2010, pp 110-153
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Summary
Crossing the chasm
‘Changing the rules rarely happens overnight’ is a characterisation that certainly applies to NCR and the Wi-Fi journey; or, in the words of Martin Bradley, general manager at NCR: ‘Bringing new technologies to market takes time, and, whatever time in your estimate it will take, it will take longer.’ Although the value aspect of deploying a wireless LAN appears an attractive enough proposition – obviating the need for the expensive cabling systems required for a wired LAN – the initial sales efforts showed that the introduction of the new technology was not the smooth ride suggested by the stylised technology adoption curves presented in marketing textbooks.
In this respect, Moore (1991) points to the difference in the process between continuous and discontinuous innovations. Continuous innovations are often incremental and do not require consumers to change their habits. Discontinuous innovations, on the other hand, demand significant changes not only on the part of the consumer but also in the related infrastructure. While recognising that companies have the objective of subsequently capturing each group of buyers, from the early adopters to the laggards, Moore emphasises the differences between five buyer groups and companies’ need to adjust their marketing and sales effort to each group. The alternative is that they ‘lose momentum, [and] miss the transition to the next segment, thereby never to gain the promised land of profit-margin leadership in the middle of the bell curve’ (Moore, 1991).
8 - The Dutch connection to US-based NCR, AT&T, Lucent Technologies and Agere Systems
- Wolter Lemstra, Technische Universiteit Delft, The Netherlands, Vic Hayes, Technische Universiteit Delft, The Netherlands, John Groenewegen, Technische Universiteit Delft, The Netherlands
-
- Book:
- The Innovation Journey of Wi-Fi
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 18 November 2010, pp 230-262
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Summary
Introduction
In Chapters 2 to 6 the innovation journey of Wi-Fi has been explored and explained as a longitudinal case study, from its genesis in 1985 and subsequent developments until 2008. In Chapters 7 to 11 we take the Wi-Fi journey as a given, and investigate five dimensions of the journey that are of particular interest. In this chapter we look at the ‘Dutch connection’. In acknowledgement of the fact that the Systems Engineering Centre in Utrecht has played such an important role in the development of Wi-Fi, we survey the relationship between the Wi-Fi journey and the Dutch national innovation system (NIS).
From the innovation journey we learned that the development of Wi-Fi was triggered by a policy change towards radio spectrum usage by the US Federal Communications Commission. This new opportunity to use RF spectrum without the need for a licence was taken up by a number of companies, including NCR, to start the development of wireless LANs. The account of the Wi-Fi journey also revealed that NCR's decision to allocate the feasibility study, and later product development, to the Utrecht Systems Engineering Centre was driven by the availability there of the knowledge required to create a wireless LAN. The Dutch connection we explore in this chapter concerns the role played by the Dutch national innovation system in the development of Wi-Fi. In order to do this, we first provide an overview of the Dutch innovation system in terms of its main institutions, and a historical account of RF technology and its applications in the Netherlands. Subsequently we look into the role of the various economic actors and their knowledge interactions that were instrumental in the development of Wi-Fi, and assess how the knowledge that had been acquired in the process migrated to other firms when the Utrecht Engineering Centre was closed.