The Intel Centrino campaign begins with controversy as 802.11 chipmaker Atheros claims Wi-Fi is not truly embedded in a Pentium chip for Centrino, as some people believe. The company released an executive summary to the media titled "Centrino vs. Pentium M: The Battle for Wireless Notebooks" which states Pentium-M can be coupled with anyone's 802.11 chips, whether from Intel, Atheros, Broadcom, etc.

However, the Centrino brand name clearly belongs to Intel and the only way for a chip maker to use the Centrino brand name on its chip or overall marketing purposes is to use Pentium-M with Intel's in-house 802.11b Wi-Fi solution. Notebook makers are already embracing the Centrino brand in mass including Dell, Acer, Fujitsu, HP/Compaq, IBM, Gateway, Systemax, Sony and Toshiba. Notebook manufacturers want to use the Centrino brand name in order to benefit from Intel's current US$300 million "Unwire" advertisement blast - online and offline.

The campaign will build Intel Wi-Fi's mindshare and branding it with such global prominence will put hotspots everywhere as "Centrino Enabled". The amount invested, and the leverage which Intel has, may well dash plans for the Wi-Fi Alliance who wants to label the hotspots as Wi-Fi ZONES. However, the Alliance requires the venue owner to pay for the privilege. Venue owner's may think twice about forking out payment and opt to embrace the use of Intel's warm - but free - Centrino-Enabled labels. Research firm Ipsos-Reid surveyed 1,000 people in the United States and said 41 per cent of adults are familiar with the term "Wi-Fi", and 13 per cent have a home Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) but 40 per cent of those those who know Wi-Fi, can't identify a hotspot for public access near their home.

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