Latest ‘Apple-cations’ Need to Find Bandwidth

CEN Feature (May 13 2010)

1. 

   For whatever reason, I’m not an Apple kind guy. Some who know me claim it’s because I’m rotten to the core—and there may be a seed of truth to that, especially if you really dislike puns.

   I’d rather struggle with and curse at Windows, whether it’s Vista or XP and especially if it’s Outlook, than use a Mac; I listen to music on a Sansa MP3 player rather than an iPod; I have an unwieldy BlackBerry which even I can see doesn’t work as easily as an iPhone.

   But these iPad commercials have me intrigued. This looks like the device of my dreams; a big notepad that gives me access to the Internet, my music, my e-mail and my work. OK, so it doesn’t fit in my pocket. Nothing and nobody—not even I—is perfect, including grammatical structure.

   I can envision myself sitting in Borders sipping that lousy coffee they make and zipping through the Internet or perhaps carrying it on a business trip. Then I think of how many others have the same visions and wonder where we will find the bandwidth. This thing is a device that’s intended to latch onto a Wi-Fi connection to deliver broadband Internet quickly, seamlessly, reliably and in a fun way.

   Where will we find the bandwidth to make it happen?

   If you’ve ever been to a trade show or some other gathering of geeks, you’ve experienced the Wi-Fi snarl. It’s like traffic on the L.A. freeway only slower with less opportunity to move. Imagine using your iPad there.

   You can solve that internal bottleneck with some new configurations and new servers and a little expense, but unless you have a fat pipe coming to the building, you’re still dead meat. The network into which it feeds back needs to be more robust.
   

   If you’re a service provider and you still need a reason to consider Carrier Ethernet as your regional network transport of choice, consider this: iPads are hitting the streets faster and in greater quantities than mosquitoes in a low lying area in a wet spring. And the iPhone, the original cause of network agita, is soon to be unveiled on Verizon. Where will you find the bandwidth to make them work?

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