WiMax - Deserves Your Consideration

I think 2009 may be year of WiMax.  Here is a map from Daily Wireless.  Oh, what is WiMax you ask?

According to Intel and Wiki, WiMax stands for Worldwide Interoperability For Microwave Access. 

Here are some facts and selling points about WiMax:

• Wiki claims Pakistan has the biggest WiMax network deployed.
• It's known as 802.16e.
• It is advertised as the best replacement to land-based broadband like DSL.
• WiMax was used to help with communications and relief efforts in the aftermaths of Katrina and the 2004 tsunami.
• Sprint and Clearwire are the biggest companies that have set up a WiMax network in the US.  Google, Intel, Comcast, and Time Warner later joined the partnership.
• From time to time, rumors about a Google takeover of Sprint for the WiMax network will surface.
• Intel is pushing Wimax very hard by adding a WiMax capable chip on some of their CPUs.
• WiMax allows users to be freed from WiFi access points because of its longer range access.
• Competing technologies include 3G, Wi-Fi, UMTS, and assortments of CDMA flavors.
• Additional devices over the next year will have WiMax enabled access like Nokia's 800 tablet series and varying netbooks.  Of course, Intel will try to sell WiMax-CPU combinations to consumers and notebook makers.  Intel will push a wide variety of products:  mobile Internet devices, smartphones, Android phones (from Google), PDA, Camera, UMPCs, and laptops.
• Consumer embedded access points.

IN the US, Sprint's WiMax service is called the xohm. Sprint is call the new service the "bigger hotspot".  Indeed, the service can't come fast enough.  It remains to see how customer experiences will be like once they start going mobile.  However, this is great news for mobile warriors as it is faster than 3G.  

As a mobile gadget fan, I can't wait to be rid of DSL or the need be next to a Wi-Fi access point.  I'm sure all mobile warriors out there agrees with me.  Now, just make this possible on Macbooks and I'll be a step closer to wireless heaven.

Dell Earnings Show Innovation Is Not Simply Changing Looks

Dell's earnings was down quite a bit last week.  As a result there was a lot of questions for Dell's future and the industry at large.  Could what happened to Dell's earnings report this week be what is coming for the rest of the tech industry?  More importantly, could this have been avoided?  It all depends on what they said happened and what the reality is.


The economic state the world is in now definitely has an impact on tech spending and there is no argument from anyone about it.  I think we're in for a longer period of slugginess than I think anyone care to admit.  It was good that US Treasury finally acknowledged that we've got issues.  Now, does this bad quarter for Dell also extend to IBM, HP, or Apple?


Obviously, we won't know until these companies report their earnings.  But does this point to a deeper problem being suffered by tech companies these days?  Technology has improved incrementally but stagnation from the labs of these tech companies is also evident.  The biggest technological improvement, if you can call it that, is the proliferation of these so-call netbooks.  Seriously, that's the best these companies have been able to come up with in the last couple of years.  


As far as mobility is concerned (or computing or electronics in general), there really has not been true innovation since Intel and Microsoft tried to convince us that UMPCs are the next step in mobile computing.  True mobility means being able to take your mobile device anywhere you want and being able to power it. It was cool watching the promotional videos for this new class of devices but the truth is of the matter is we're not there yet.  Battery life is one component.  Guess what the other is?


Wireless connectivity also plays a big part.  In truth, whether it'll be 3G, WiMax, or whatever gen 4 mobile 


Once we have these two components in place, there will also be the matter of creating mobile devices that can truly take mobile work, computing, and entertainment to another level.  Building wireless capability like Intel is doing with WiMax is a good first step but mobile devices like tablets or some new class of mobile devices, which we believe Apple and Google are trying to create and dominate, 


So in summary, and we'll make it sound like all this is a piece of cake, is as follows:

• New battery technology - fuel cell, or a combination of super efficient components and battery packaging.
• Wireless broadband - we're talking about unmetered, unfettered access.   About a week ago, Onxo discussed what the Federal Communications Commission chairman wanted for the US.  
• True revolutionary UI and packaging for the form.  

HP has announced their intention to release touch-screened computers next year.  We already have a variety of such devices on the market, albeit incomplete solutions what seems like lackluster implementation, and totally lack of user experience.  

We'll just have to wait until that happens.  Who's going to offer us the total convergence that offer the best complete mobile solution?