Belkin delays shipments of its CableFree USB hub until July

Westlake Village (CA) - A company spokesperson yesterday confirmed that the first ship date for the product, which was slated to begin shipments in April, had slipped by three months. A spokesperson told us that the delayed has been caused by "general manufacturing set-backs."

The delay could indicate that Freescale is having trouble with its CableFree USB technology, which is based on the UWB Forum’s core UltraWideBand technology. It would also put Freescale in a neck-and-neck race with the WiMedia Alliance for bragging rights to the first commercially available UltraWideBand products. The new July ship date is in the same time frame as the "first products by mid-year" claimed by WiMedia Alliance members during January’s Consumer Electronics Show.

TomsNetworking has not received a response from Gefen for a schedule update on the availability of its Wireless USB Extender, which also uses Freescale’s "CableFree" technology.

Even when the first UWB USB products ship, they will support only a single wireless UWB link. So even when first products ship, they will implement only wireless USB extension instead of the visions of numerous products communicating wirelessly at USB 2.0 speeds touted by both UWB camps.