Products based on 802.11g picked up where 802.11b slackened in the second quarter of 2003 and helped maintain strong growth in wireless networking, according to research firm Dell?Oro Group. Worldwide handset shipments in the second quarter grew 19.2 percent, to 118.3 million units, compared with the same period a year ago, according to research firm IDC.
Analysts had speculated that low-power versions of 802.11b chips would be suitable for popular portable devices and, hence, attractive to chipmakers and manufacturers. But the chips? relatively high power consumption was a challenge, and their larger size meant the devices had to be bigger.