I know a lot of people weren’t impressed when wired-network leader Belden bought Wi-Fi veteran Trapeze Networks earlier this year – but, as I noted then, this is significant, to say the least. The combination now gets even more interesting as Wi-Fi location-and-tracking (RTLS) pioneer and still leader Newbury Networks gets added to the team. Now, Newbury was already supplying technology to Trapeze, so the fit is already there. And, as I’ve said for many years now, location and tracking is going to be (and is already, in fact) a key part of every enterprise-class WLAN systems vendor’s arsenal. I’ve followed Newbury Networks since they were founded (and earlier, in fact, as the core management team came from wireless middleware leader Netmorf), and I expect this acquisition to work really, really well.
What made Newbury Networks successful was a deep commitment to the required technology (which is not easy, and which they have continually refined over the years), a focus on customers, and, most importantly and a little unusually, development and support of a broad variety of applications, thereby creating demand for their technology while providing solutions that solve real problems.
Location and tracking will just get more important, and more interesting, over time. This acquisition, if nothing else, is indicative of that fact.
