Technical Report: Innovation and Commercialization of Wi-Fi Technology

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the innovation of Wi-Fi technology, tracing its evolution from the initial idea to its commercial success. It begins with an executive summary, followed by an exploration of the innovation roadmap, including the original idea and business proposition, the preceding technologies, and historical trends. The report identifies the markets originally targeted, outlines the emergence of the roadmap to commercial success, and highlights the critical factors that drove the innovation's success. An assessment of the innovation pathway is also included, along with a bibliography of cited sources. The report details the contributions of Dr. John O'Sullivan and his team, the role of Wi-Fi Alliance, and the impact of digital marketing. The report assesses the innovation pathway through idea generation, concept and feasibility assessment, R&D activities, commercialization, and market analysis, concluding with a look at the future of Wi-Fi and related technologies like Li-Fi.

Innovation of Wi-Fi Technology
Student Details
3/11/2020

Executive Summary
Innovation means "a fresh concept, imaginative ideas, fresh imaginations in tool or process" in
its current context. Innovation is most frequently seen as implementing better approaches that
meet new criteria, unarticulated needs or current business needs. This advancement takes place
through the provision to consumer, society as well as government of more effective goods,
systems, services, innovations or business models. Technological advancement is the mechanism
by which a company (or an individual operating beyond a formal entity) embarks on a path
through which technology has become a key driver of performance for better competition in the
industry.
All assumes that they are fingertips on who they are, but very few people have actual
understanding about diverse technologies, drivers and distinctive characteristics. Although
experts and forecasters tend to agree that the customer powers the next phase of new goods and
creativity, they have no understanding about how to appeal directly to them. The same holds
with Wi-Fi hardware creativity. There were several innovations implemented across the world in
the 1960s to link different computers. Digitalised networks were made very popular among
individuals in the 1950s and Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Li-Fi technologies were developed here.
Several physicists had been forced to study these technologies as they wanted to communicate to
some area of the planet without ever traveling there. In 1992, O'Sullivan's team developed a
system that is found in Wi-Fi and licensed under its label. Innovation is the mechanism whereby
a new concept, idea, item, etc. is innovated or modified. Scientists ought to grasp the discovery
cycle or different innovations, so that will help inspire them, recognize the best path so value of
science. Wi-Fi infrastructure can be marked on the lane. Wi-Fi creativity has been guided by a
variety of reasons around the globe.
Physical and digital limitations, unit size, less wiring, signal exchange, and so forth were the key
considerations. In this phase, researchers perform a profound analysis to create it fresh or to
change principles, goods and ideas. Wireless internet is a huge move in the growing age of
digitalization. Creativity is a large step. The gap between the various mobile systems and users '
desires has contributed to Wi-Fi technology advancement. In this study the innovative pathway
of Wi-Fi technology and its innovation has been mapped in productive manner.

Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Understanding roadmap of innovation............................................................................................4
Original Idea and business Preposition........................................................................................4
Preceding technologies and Historic trends.................................................................................4
Identification of markets originally targeted................................................................................4
Emergence of roadmap to commercial success...........................................................................5
Critical factors that drove the success of the innovation.............................................................5
Assessment of innovation pathway.................................................................................................5
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................8

Understanding roadmap of innovation
Innovation is the process in which a new product, idea, thing etc get innovated or get established
with changes (Nanda & Kropf, 2013). It is important for researchers to understand the process of
innovation or various inventions, this can help them in getting motivated, understand the right
direction and importance of research. The road mapping of Wi-Fi technology is done in flowing
steps:
Original Idea and business Preposition
The term Wi-Fi is the technology that is introduced by the team of an Australian scientist names
Dr. John O’Sullivan in 1992. Wi-Fi means arranging wireless networks, which is related to use
of no wires in connecting computers present in all over world. The technologies used before the
invention of Wi-Fi was restricting the connection of network to a particular range. The need of
reaching to every corner of the world without going there actually, has made many scientists to
research about such technologies, hence in 1992 the team of O’Sullivan has introduced a
technology which is used in Wi-Fi and acquired it patent under their name (King, et al., 2017).
Preceding technologies and Historic trends
In order to connect various computers there were many technologies which were introduced in
the world around 1960s. The communication among individuals with the help of digitalized
technologies has become popular in 1950s, which has given rise to Bluetooth, Ethernet, Wi-Fi
and Li-Fi technology. Earlier there was Bluetooth and Ethernet system, which facilitate the user
to connect with other computers however to a fixed range (Narasimhan & Narayanan, 2013).
Ethernet comprises of LAN, MAN and WAN in which the computers are connected locally with
wires. In the Bluetooth connectivity technology, the connections among devises can be set
wirelessly. However in order to reach wider range the introduction of Wi-Fi took place where the
use of internet has also innovated and transformed from 2nd generation to 3rd, 4th and currently 5th
generation (Polder, et al., 2010).
Identification of markets originally targeted
The innovation of Wi-Fi technology is considered to be by product of a failed experiment of Dr.
O’Sullivan and his colleagues in 1992. However, in that failed experiment the Wi-Fi technology
is discovered by Dr. O’Sullivan and he took patent for the same. There is need of a wireless
technology to connect various electronic devises; however, the innovation of Wi-Fi technology
was sudden (Parrotta, et al., 2014). There was no target market earlier; however, in 1999 Wi-Fi

Alliance is formed as trade association to hold the Wi-Fi trademark under which most products
are sold. The addition in the technology of Wi-Fi later on has made many companies to hold a
patent in Wi-Fi (Li You, et al., 2017).
Emergence of roadmap to commercial success
The introduction of Wi-Fi technology for the very first time by Dr. O’Sullivan in his experiment
leads to innovation of a new technology. Later on, when in 1992 the patent of Wi-Fi has been
taken by O’Sullivan, many organizations, countries come forward with their innovation in Wi-Fi
technology. In this manner the commercial success of Wi-Fi took place gradually (Chong, et al.,
2016). The innovations made by researchers present in all over the world have led to bringing
something new to communication network among electronic devises. The word of mouth and
digital marketing in all over the world about Wi-Fi technology leads to it commercial success
which influenced researchers to researcher more about the concept to introduce something new
and innovative in the scenario (Tidd & Bessant, 2018).
Critical factors that drove the success of the innovation
The innovation of Wi-Fi has driven by many factors, which were present in all over the world.
The main factors were physical and digitized restrictions, distance between devices, use of fewer
wires, sharing of signals, etc. In this process in depth study is done by researcher in order to
produce something new or make changes in the established concepts, products, ideas, etc. The
innovation of Wi-Fi technology is a very big step taken into the changing era of digitalized world
(Afsar & Umrani, 2019). The distance among various electronic devices and the need of users
has led to innovation of Wi-Fi technology.
Assessment of innovation pathway
The roadmap of innovation of Wi-Fi technology has been done in effective manner now in this
section the innovative pathway adopted by officials and scholars in adding something innovative
to Wi-Fi technology has been assessed (Polder, et al., 2010). The pathway adopted for the
innovation of Wi-Fi was not previously planned as it was innovated by accident from the wrong
experiment of Dr. O’Sullivan and his colleagues. In that experiment there is no set path for
innovation of Wi-Fi, however later on when the commercial success of this technology, many
researchers come forward to add something meaningful in Wi-Fi technology, which is still going
on. The pathway of innovation of Wi-Fi is assessed is following manner:

Source: Innovation Pathway Assessment (Jason Potts, 2014)
 Idea Generation: The idea of generating wireless communication technology among
electronic devises have generated from the era after 1980s, when the scope of Ethernet
got restricted just to the computers of a particular region. The innovation of wireless
technology can overcome this hurdle; hence researchers were working on the same.
 Concept & Feasibility Assessment: The feasibility of the innovation is very efficient as
the whole world was in need of getting connected together. The researchers all around the
world were researching about the technology which can facilitate them in connecting
around the world efficiently.
 Innovation, R&D Activities: The innovation related to Wi-Fi has evolved year by year.
Many researchers in order to provide new addition to the existing technology new
concepts in Wi-Fi and took patent for the same as well.
 Commercialization: The commercialization of Wi-Fi technology took place gradually
where the digital and analogue marketing tactics are adopted. The advertisement first
established in print form later on with the changing market conditions and scenarios the
they were also presented in video and digitized format.
 Market: The commercialization of Wi-Fi technology has taken the communication
market of Australia to new heights, where the innovation in internet like 3rd, 4th and 5th
generation of networks has powered the world market to non-imaginable heights.

The innovations of Wi-Fi have gone through many phrases and still the addition of different
technologies in it is going on. The Li-Fi which is the next phase of Wi-Fi is already developed
and came into the market however has not become popular yet. The growth in internet and
technologies related to same has made researchers to introduce advance communication frames
to make communication easy, accessible and errorfree. It is no dough that the more advance the
technology is the more security options get influenced by the same. Same goes with the Wi-Fi
technologies, where it has some security issues, however the innovators of technology have
given solutions for providing Wi-Fi technology to whole world.

Bibliography
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the roles of innovation, knowledge complexity and environmental turbulence in influencing the
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Digital Economy, 2(1), pp. 1-9.
King, B. A., Hammond, T. & Harrington, J., 2017. Disruptive technology: Economic
consequences of artificial intelligence and the robotics revolution. Journal of Strategic
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Parrotta, P., Pozzoli, D. & Pytlikova, M., 2014. The nexus between labor diversity and firm’s
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Polder, M., Leeuwen, G. v., Mohnen, P. & Raymond, W., 2010. Product, Process and
Organizational Innovation: Drivers, Complementarity and Productivity Effects. CIRANO -
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