"The core of the line is a wireless base station and that consists of a cable/DSL router, a wireless access point and a four port Ethernet switch. And that's the core of the line and that's the thing that you put between your broadband modem and your computer and that would wirelessly enable your home. The other two products that go along with that are the wireless network adaptors. We have a USB adaptor to plug into a USB port on any PC and a notebook adaptor which is a PC card form factor, which also can speak to the wireless base station."
But with so many other manufacturers... .Linksys, D-Link and Actiontec for instance making popular wireless networking gear... ..why is there a need for Microsoft to jump in?
"It comes down to our focus in building this line, which has really been to streamline the set up. With other products on the market, you have to know things like whether you have static or dynamic IP, all sorts of alphabet soup stuff. Our products actually detect those settings for you automatically. It's really straight forward."
And the new products fit in with Microsoft's strategy for new Tablet PCs... that can be carried around the home or office. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin