I can tell the "analyst" has never worked construction in a large office building, or even been around one before the wall coverings go on. Every 18" a steel stud and we all know effective wireless is in a forest of steel studs. We can't even get cell phones to work without internal repeaters, and then there are dead spots. (And we're on a single story building). On multilevel buildings the wireless signal can be picked up easier outside the window than in the office next door.

And of course, first 802.11N has to get out of "draft" status, maybe by the end of the decade?

Are these the same analysts that said in the mid-80's that shortly we would be a paperless society?

Ethernet cables most likely won't disappear until long after the last COBOL program is finally retired.

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I agree with the other comments. I respect the opinion of the writer of this article, but I strongly disagree with ANY supposed research article that claims wireless will replace wired. No matter how fast and how secure wireless gets, it will simply never take the places of a solid, wired connection. It will never be as stable, never be secure enough, never be fast enough, etc.

Ethernet speeds are taking off, leaving wireless far behind in the dust. I can truthfully say that in the real world, wireless throughput is nowhere near the advertised rates. Also, wireless is inherently insecure, and the necessary encryption adds a huge amount of overhead to the data. Ethernet generally requires no encryption.

I rate this claim right up there with the guy who said that OEM recovery partitions on new PCs meant that you could throw away your Windows CD. Just because something has been around for ages and seems archaic doesn't mean it's worthless and should be thrown away.

I don't think stating facts can be construed as negative. If it dosn't work in a common specific environment, then it doesn't work. Period, and no amount of lip gloss will sell that pig. Wireless is a wonderful advance, but it has it's limitations, and they are real and understood in the real world.

Some "analyst" can propose what he wants, but the fact is that wireless is adversely affectes by large amounts of metal. In fact, in high secure areas, that is exactly what they use to make them secure from penetrating radio waves, which is what wireless is.

In the open areas, coffee shops, home, and certain office areas, it is fantastic. Ethernet has the advantage of speed, and even 802.11N is not as fast as Gigabyte Ethernet. It also has the advantage of security in the fact that it does not transmit outside the restricted area (the wire). The disadvantage is that you must run the wire. In large buildings where the wire is already there, and the ethernet port is now on the MB, the only cost to hook up a PC is the 6' or so patch cord. It is going to take a lot to obsolete that system. About the time the "paperless" society that these same "analysts" touted we would have in a few years (in the mid-80's) finally arrives.

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