HUNGOVER, Germany –- CeBIT 2003 –- It's not often Unstrung falls off its chair before the bars have opened, but Andy Buss, senior analyst at consultancy Canalys.com Ltd., came pretty close to producing that effect today when chatting about Intel Corp.'s (Nasdaq: INTC) launch of Centrino (see Centrino: Building the Brand).

Buss follows the chipmaker closely, and believes the silicon giant is putting a whopping $750 million behind its Centrino strategy this year. "It has deep pockets," he says.

A spokesman for the chipmaker reiterated Intel's earlier statement (broken-record-like): "What we're saying today is that we're going to spend $300 million on the marketing and promotion of Centrino," says Intel's Tom Potts. Intel Capital has also set aside $150 million to spend on promising wireless LAN startups, but as Potts notes, that's not specifically Centrino-related money (see Intel's WiFi Wad).Back on the Buss, our analyst in Hannover adds that feedback from 802.11 players suggests there are only four very minor issues to clear up before 802.11g (54-Mbit/s over 2.4GHz) is ratified as a standard by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE). In which case, we should be hearing satisfied grunts from the Institute following its next g working group meeting in June.

— Ray Le Maistre, European Editor, Unstrung