The San Francisco Chronicle reports on the release today of Texas Instruments' latest WiFi chip, the TNETW1100B. According to TI, it will consume on average one-tenth the power of existing WiFi chips, and it is half the size. This is expected to increase battery life for PDAs as much as 25 percent. To be specific, the energy reduction is down to 2 mW during standby mode.

Most interesting about this product release is it signals the coming convergence of corporate PBX systems with cell phones. Equip a corporate PBX system with VoIP over WiFi, and allow it to seamlessly roam to cellular networks when it is out of range of the corporate network, and you've got (a) a single device you can carry around with you that has one phone number, and (b) no cellular charges when you're within range of the corporate LAN. This is an innovation that may not come from most of the the cellular incumbents, but I believe that an opportunity is brewing for the first carrier that does embrace the model - namely, huge corporate deals that will finally allow the carriers to break into the enterprise market.

Thanks to Sameer Verma for the link!