IXI Brings In More Cash
We’ve been covering the story of IXI Wireless for more than two years, and while we were a bit skeptical at first, the idea has been growing on us – and decisions by companies like Motorola and Samsung to support their concept of the “personal hub” have only furthered that view. It appears that IXI is about to announce $20 to $30 million more in venture capital raised to further the offering that would let you wireless connect various devices via a PAN (personal area network) to your outbound wireless connection. In other words, you could have a mobile hub that could just stay in your pocket. If you need to send a detailed text message, you could pull out a tiny keyboard, which wouldn’t need the same level of wireless smarts inside, since it could just communicate via Bluetooth to the hub, and then send the message out that way. If you needed to make a phone call, you would pull out your phone module. The part that’s still unclear is how willing people are to use multiple devices – even if they all work off of the same service and let a user apply the best device to the task at hand. Already, people complain about the number of devices they need to carry around, and by splitting them up into even more devices, it could make people less than excited about the concept. It may depend on the final devices and how they’re marketed. If they’re positioned to be a more flexible solution, it could win people over. If it’s positioned as just “best device for the best situation” it may scare people off.
