The biggest loser in the last WiFi upgrade was Texas Instruments. It had a convincing claim to have solved the main problem with the preliminary 802.11g WiFi standard.

That problem was that 11g went four times faster than 11b - but only if no 11b devices were in the area. Texas proposed that its solution should be part of the standard, and the IEEE was working on that when Broadcom simply launched its chip, which people in their millions then bought. Suddenly, the standard was irrelevant, and Broadcom gained a huge advantage over all its rivals.

And this time the WiFi Alliance hopes to prevent this happening. Cheers! Hoorah!

But can they? Or will a big silicon bully just trample on them and kick sand in their face?