Opinion: The true meaning of Asus’ Draft-N guarantee

Wow, Draft-N kit might actually be safe to buy.

Asus has announced it has guaranteed the upgradeability of both the firmware and hardware of its Draft-N kit.

While we restrain our enthusiasm for this new announcement from Asus, let’s look at a demonstrative case study.

You go online and buy Asus’ WL-500W Super Speed N wireless router and WL-100W Super Speed N wireless adapter before the end of 2006.

Bear in mind, this is exactly what we said you shouldn’t do. Why? Because of the uncertainty over 802.11n, delayed ratification date, 12,000 alterations to the Draft 1.0 specification yada yada.

You get it home and set it up.

You’re happy, because you benefit from the excellent speeds and range Draft-N has to offer. Even if it does deal with legacy kit like a Mini Metro deals with a hill climb.

Then suddenly, one day, you wake up. (That’s 2008 wireless keenos.) The world has changed. Broadcom has had to make hardware changes to its chipset.

You ring up Asus within three months. The guys send you a brand new router.

This is both good…and bad.

It’s good that Asus and Broadcom are confident in the technology. But it’s bad because, if the technology they’ve thus far created is so right, why doesn’t it work particularly well?

Communication with legacy devices is poor, while interoperability between different Draft-N chipsets is average at best. And us? We’re sticking to our guns. It’s still the case that now isn’t really the time to go out and buy Draft-N kit, even though Asus’ offer is an interesting one.

Asus is obviously trying to pimp its products using a USP that it wants to win praise for. And, to an extent, it should - ratification is nearly two years away. But the fact it is extending its guarantee to hardware has to be seen as a slight embarrassment to the chipset manufacturers and those working on the 802.11n standard.

Can you imagine the boardrooms of other wireless vendors today? The debate whether the same guarantee should be offered will surely run and run.

The comments by Broadcom’s Rahul Patel are, quite frankly, hilarious.

“While we attribute…customer confidence to the maturity of the current draft-n specification we applaud ASUS for going one step further to guarantee future compatibility.”

Mature certainly isn’t a word most would use to describe Draft-N. But then, he is Director of Marketing.