Sputnik has come out with its first hardware product: The AP 120 wireless access point. It’s an enterprise thingie with auto-configuration (plug one into your LAN, it figures out where to get control commands, puts up a dynamic firewall, and immediately becomes a smart but unobtrusive member of the corporate hive — all while putting out a nice little wi-fi signal). Dave Sifry (Sputnik co-founder and main tech guy) tells me the $185 price gets you the equivalent of a Cisco number selling for $800 or so. Sputnik is selling it even more cheaply to OEMs and giving away the firmware for free. I’m sure a market will follow.
Wow. The only catch that I can see is that the $185 program is a limited release, and you’d probably end up buying Sputnik Central Control Version 2.1 when it’s out.
If they can keep the price point right for their final release, they’d have technie geeks like myself running them at home in addition to their corporate clients.
Don’t underestimate the geeks.