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Orbi Mesh Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi 6 For The Gigabit Internet Home - #NETGEARCES2019
Orbi Whole Home WiFi just got even faster! NETGEAR is continuing to lead the new era of Wi-Fi. To kick off CES 2019, we announced plans to pair award-winning Orbi Wi-Fi with the latest Wi-Fi s...
That's a big stretch of an assumption.
How so? Obviously, if both the router and satellite aren't Wifi 6, you won't get full Wifi 6 benefits, but that doesn't mean it can't be backwards-compatible and function as a hybrid set to some degree. I have some Wifi 4 devices that work fine on my Wifi 5 system. Netgear would obviously prefer for everyone, whether or not they currently have Orbi systems, to just buy the new Orbi when it comes out. But that's not realistic. Netgear needs to not only attract new customers, but also retain the ones it already has. If Netgear were operating in a vacuum, sure. Maybe they make it backwards compatible, maybe not. But it's not in a vacuum. It's competing against Google, Linksys, AmpliFi, TP-Link, Belkin, etc, for market share. They want to attract new customers, but also retain the ones they already have. The easiest way to do that is to give existing Orbi customers some value for their existing setups, so that switching to a competitor is relatively more expensive than remaining with Netgear's Orbi. If a Wifi 6 Orbi set (assume one router and two satellites) is, say, $400, and a Wifi 6 Velop set (also one router and two satellites) is also $400, maybe I'm indifferent if the features are comparable. But, if I can use my existing Wifi 5 satellites with the new Orbi, and not with the Velop, it's still $400 either way, but I get more value by staying with the Orbi, since I'll have two new Wifi 6 satetllites, but also one or two old Wifi satellites, for the same $400. Unless the new Velop set with only two satellites is so much better than the new Orbi even with two new and two old satellites, most people will stick with Orbi if they already have it. If the new Velop is so much better that it more than makes up for not being compatible with my old Orbi satellites, I'm switching, and Netgear has bigger problems than a lack of backwards compatibility anyway.
I think there's a strong business case for Netgear to make the next-gen Orbis backwards compatible, and it takes a much bigger leap to assume they won't be backwards compatible. And yeah, I could sell my existing Wifi 5 Orbi set to offset the cost of upgrading to an incompatible Wifi 6 Orbi, but I could also sell my existing Orbi to offset the cost of switching to Linksys, Google, etc., so that's really not an argument in favor of Netgear abandoning its existing customer base. If Netgear makes consumers start over to get next-gen tech, there's no guarantee they start over with Netgear and not a competitor.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
Anything is possible. Just prior experiences, when new tech comes out, Mfr move forward with little regard to what was already been. I was an early adapter for AC when D-Link came out with it on there router. It worked and was backwards compatible.
We still see backwards compatibility with Mfrs and new stuff. I would hope that going forward that mfr will keep backwards compability in the mix. I presume they will. However only time will tell. Will be interesting to see when wireless B mode gets dropped along with WEP and WPA1. Theres some backwards compability for ya still. :smileyfrustrated:
We also get to look foward to WPA3 as well, however no client side support as of yet. Heard rumours about Samsung this year...
When does mfr start implementing USB3.1 gen2? :smileywink:
Not sure what Mfrs will do for current customers with current HW. Getting new Tech usally means buying it if you want it. It would be up to Mfr to give any specials to current customers which I've never seen done. Who knows though. Will be very interesting to see how WiFi 6 comes to market and how it's all received by the consumer. :smileytongue:
FURRYe38 wrote:
Anything is possible. Just prior experiences, when new tech comes out, Mfr move forward with little regard to what was already been. I was an early adapter for AC when D-Link came out with it on there router. It worked and was backwards compatible.
Something else to consider.
Orbi Voice!
If you can't use existing satelites with the new kit then customers won't want to upgrade ...
You would think backward compatibility would be high on the priority list given the Orbi Voice is so expensive itself and appears to be an important part of the overall Orbi product range.
Of course, backwards compatility. However, if the original HW or chipset didn't have support for that, then that would be a problem. Or NG may not want to include that feature. They may want to have it's own line for that feature as well as maybe not everyone wants Orbi Voice. It's an option for sure. Any thing is possible. Will be interesting to see what shows up this year and next.
raven_au wrote:
FURRYe38 wrote:
Anything is possible. Just prior experiences, when new tech comes out, Mfr move forward with little regard to what was already been. I was an early adapter for AC when D-Link came out with it on there router. It worked and was backwards compatible.
Something else to consider.
Orbi Voice!
If you can't use existing satelites with the new kit then customers won't want to upgrade ...
You would think backward compatibility would be high on the priority list given the Orbi Voice is so expensive itself and appears to be an important part of the overall Orbi product range.
