It may be the result of competition from tablets. Laptop manufacturers are nervous about competing tablet vendors, many of which do not make a PC, so all of a sudden they are competing directly with Motorola, Samsung, HTC and RIM. Plus Apple has such a huge lead on the market.
To compete with tablets laptops have to become less expensive, lighter and have longer battery life. Going with 2.4 radios is probably cheaper and definitely conserves on power due to better signal propagation. Plus, we do have N at 2.4 which is pretty darn snappy. My guess is that folks who are buying computers don't know or care about the performance gains with 5 Ghz. "Hey as long as I can get to Youtube and Facebook I'm good. Just don't make me get out my power cord and have to find an outlet." John From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Peter P Morrissey Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2011 4:01 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Dearth of 5GHz Laptops Every year we purchase a handful of laptops to get a sense of how well the new laptops that freshman are coming in with will perform on our network. Ideally we like to test laptops with 5Ghz 11n, and since we've upgraded all our residences to 11n this summer, that is even more important. I have to say that I am really disappointed though. I've been checking Best Buy and Newegg, and I am having a hard time finding laptops in any price range with 5GHz 11n. There are a few of the more expensive ones, but not all of them, and I was even expecting that the feature would trickle down into the cheaper netbooks. The one exception is Apple laptops. They have been 5GHz 11n for three or four years, and even the iPad 2 supports it. I know they come with their share of other wireless issues, which is a shame, but I still have to give them kudos for being forward thinking in that regard. And, they are really catching down with our students. If current trends continue, over 50% of our incoming class will come with Apple laptops. Pete Morrissey ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
