"However, (and I REPEAT again), the market was also ready for this transition."
When Apple introduced the AirPort, the market was ready for the transition. When Aironet introduced the 340, it was what really sparked the market. It was the first radio under $100 at retail, which is what usually moves things beyond the early adopters. So businesses and universities started using it big time. 6 months later, Gemtek was shipping the first access point that was under $100 at retail, Linksys(I think) was one of the ones that sold it. That was in early 2000. By that time, Linux had WiFi drivers for many chipsets, WinCE had them. By the time Centrino made it onto the scene, it was way beyond the early adopter stage. When more than half of the notebooks at a typical Best Buy had 802.11g and many of the rest had 802.11b, it is already way beyond early adopter stage.
Did Intel's marketing money helped? Probably. Would the market be vastly different now if they hadn't of spent that money? Hard to tell. It very well may be that there would have been less hot spots available without Intel's money. But it might not have been much different. As I showed earlier, in 2002 the market for chipsets was already over $500 million. That year Philips had started delivery of their chipset that promised to push the BOM under $20. None of this activity is characteristic of a market of early adopters, but one well in the growth phase.
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