The Wi-Fi bubble
Even though big players are also jumping into the Wi-Fi market with the launch of Cometa Networks backed by IBM, Intel and AT&T, there are still many questions about any of the current obscure or big players surviving according to this New York Times story (registration required):
While analysts hesitate to predict that any of these companies will survive to become widely recognized brands like Netscape, the resemblance to the Internet craze of the 1990's has been widely noted.
"There is a bit of a bubble here," said Dylan Brooks, a wireless communications analyst at Jupiter Research. "We've had more than $2 billion in venture capital money flowing in, more than total revenues."...So far, of an estimated two million potential Wi-Fi sites at commercial sites like stores, gasoline stations and restaurants, only about 3,000 have been installed, according to Sky Dayton, Boingo's founder, who spoke last week at an industry conference in Santa Clara, Calif. Some entrepreneurs say the potential market includes apartment buildings and small office buildings.