Sure, we can blame this one on the Demo Gods, but real solutions are also available...
It’s always fun to watch Steve Jobs’ announcements at Apple events. I’m a big fan of his (and always have been), despite what I consider to be a few questionable business practices, and I’m also a big fan of Apple’s products. But the at least slightly-embarrassing Wi-Fi failure during a key demo gives all of us – not just Steve – pause to think about what we might be able to do to avoid such problems in the future. After all, Wi-Fi is now mission-critical in many (if not most) applications, like demos when literally the whole world is watching, but also in healthcare, education, logistics, manufacturing, transportation, government, real-time control, transportation, and on and on and on. Wi-Fi, I’ve continually argued, is regardless key to the success of mobility overall, and an essential partner with wide-area wireless technologies. It simply must work.
Some have noted that this really is asking a lot. After all, Wi-Fi uses the unlicensed bands, and problems relating to other traffic, interference of many forms, radio wave propagation, and, again, on and on, make it difficult to provide the assurance we need that our applications will run at the most critical times. But the technologies, tools, and techniques to do just that exist, and we can all learn from Steve’s misfortune here. In fact, a discussion with key technical staff at Meru Networks led to a Webinar, which we’re doing on very short notice next Wednesday, 16 June, at 2:00 EDT, to talk about some of what’s possible in improving the reliability of Wi-Fi installations and providing the very best possible performance no matter what the application. You can see the details (and sign up) here, and I hope you’ll be able to attend this free live event.
We can’t expect perfection, and, thankfully, 802.11 and Wi-Fi don’t require such. But it doesn’t have to be as bad as Steve’s recent experience. Oh, and, BTW, no real surprises in the iPhone 4 announcement, and, I must confess, I was pleased with the modest but elegant improvements to its industrial design.
