CES: Wireless USB Starts To Hit Its StrideCES: Wireless USB Starts To Hit Its Stride

Judging by what's being displayed here at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it won't be that long until USB cables could be a thing of the past. Well, maybe not in applications where you're depending on USB for power. But what is clear, based on my interview of USB Implementers Forum director of marketing Jon Kenton, is that it's only a matter of time before a great many USB peripherals -- everything from cameras to printers and more -- are enabled with the technology. This post includes a video.According to Kenton, the standard for wireless USB was ratified about 18 months ago and since then, the community of vendors that make USB-compatible devices (gee, what vendor doesn't?) has slowly been ramping up their wares to go wireless. First, according to Kenton, the USB chip manufacturers had to retool their silicon for wireless USB. Then, those chips had to start working their way into devices.

Here at CES, one of those devices that can be seen in the video below is a Lenovo ThinkPad (Kenton mentions that Dell is out with one, too). Also, a prime target for wireless USB are USB hubs. For example, if a notebook like the aforementioned ThinkPad can "speak" wirelessly to a USB hub and that hub is hard-wired to a printer, the printer can then be located anywhere in the room as opposed to having to stay hard-wired to the PC. Eventually, though, once the printers and other peripherals are natively running wireless USB, the need for the hub would go away.

Kenton says the technology is good for about three to 10 meters and, where a notebook doesn't have the wireless USB technology built-in, there are plenty of solution providers offering wireless dongles that connect to a PC's existing USB ports. Here's the interview with Kenton: