Where the Wi-Fi Money Is

The treasure and terror of the current state of technology investing will spill into view this week when Intel(INTC Quote) formally introduces its Centrino chipset for mobile computing with a splashy television- and print-advertising campaign.

The semiconductor giant has vowed to commit more money to promoting Centrino than it did to promote the Pentium 4 -- a magnitude of ad spending that suggests desperation to change its public perception from a company known for making faster and faster desktop computer products to a company known for making products that release us from the desktop.

If this is truly an epochal shift in technology from the dead end of a wired past to the limitless horizons of an unwired future, you would think that investors would be salivating over the opportunity to make money in myriad ways. ...