Wireless Display – An Intel’s Laptop-to-HDTV viewer with a clear strategic agenda
I recently sat down to try out Intel’s new Wireless Display product. It connects an Intel specially bundled chipset and software in a Toshiba laptop that works with a Netgear Push-2-TV adapter. Inside the Toshiba laptop is custom Intel software, an Intel i5 CPU, an Intel Graphics chip and an Intel WiFi chip. You can sorta see where this is going already – “son of Centrino”. At the moment, this bundle is a Best Buy exclusive for the next six months. [NOTE: this systems only works as a bundle, i.e. this is not backwards compatible with any other hardware that is on the market]
The product itself sets up fairly easily. It uses Intel’s WiFi Direct technology (WiDi) to connect the laptop to the Netgear box which is connected to the HDTV’s HDMI port. Anything on the laptop screen is shown on the HDTV. The product itself works fine – provided there isn’t too much other WiFi interference to mess up the video. There are also some important caveats. First, the Intel WiDi product has substantial delay – about 2 seconds, between the laptop screen and the HDTV. For watching video content, that doesn’t really matter making the system an adequate video viewer. What WiDi doesn’t do well at all is make the HDTV a virtual desktop or second monitor. The delay is entirely intolerable. For example you can’t type on the web browser on your laptop and look at the HDTV screen – the delay drives you nuts. Moreover, the cursor movement delay is bad enough that Intel has the option of disabling the cursor from being seen on the HDTV altogether. Another great application the WiDi can’t do is running Skype – the 2 second delay makes it unwatchable on the HDTV. Finally, though text and graphics quality is okay , there is noticeable degradation with some fuzziness around sharp edges.
Let’s contrast this with products based on Alereon’s NoWire™ Technology. First, there is no lag time or delay between the laptop and the HDTV allowing you to easily surf the web (including using your keyboard and mouse). Facebook, YouTube and generally web browsing all look great. In addition Alereon’s NoWire technology allows the user to make their HDTV into an extended monitor, something Intel’s technology does not allow. Imagine being able to use the DVD player in your laptop, throw the movie up onto your HDTV as and extended monitor, but continue to use your laptop to do your email, etc while the kids are entertained by their DVD. Finally, you can use an Alereon NoWire solution with any existing laptop or desktop system, so you can easily add it to what you have today. In summary if you want a simple laptop viewer – and you are ready to purchase a new $1000 laptop, then one of the three WiDi enabled laptops at Best Buy may be your ticket. Conversely, if you want to use your current laptop or purchase any laptop of your choice, and want to use your HDTV as just a real time extension of your laptop, then wait a few months and purchase a retail aftermarket kit that incorporates Alereon’s NoWire technology.
The more interesting question to think about is where does Intel plan to go with WiDi? To me, it seems pretty clear. They are learning through the first WiDi product and have plans for a broader product in 2011 or beyond. I suspect they have in mind a marketing campaign and bundle reminiscent of the original Centrino campaign that was an Intel CPU plus Intel WiFi chip. This campaign however will be more wide ranging. It is focused on driving Intel’s graphics into the system – thus increasing Intel’s average content in the bundled laptops. Further, it is meant to cover up the fact that in general Intel’s graphics chips are inferior to those from the ATI division of AMD or the graphics chips from Nvidia. Since the Laptop-to-TV application is a natural hit feature, Intel may be able to use their kitting to drive market share at the expense of both AMD and Nvidia in the consumer laptop market. In summary, I expect to see Intel come out with WiDi marketing for holiday season 2010 and a much bigger push in 2011.
Where does this ultimately go? I think where this ends up is that as this application becomes popular, UWB radios become standard inside laptops to provide the link to the HDTV. The reason is simple – UWB can provide more bandwidth to allow higher performance video without interfering with or “stealing bandwidth” from the WiFi already prevalent in homes and offices. The system will allow real time usage of the system, without crazy delays that make some applications unusable, making it more than just a movie viewer. The Laptop on HDTV era is upon us – and just one more example of Life without Wires™.
