My EE friends are not so sure, but as I see how the market is playing out in the mobile space, I'm more and more convinced that WiMAX is the next big thing.
What's gotten into me? Nothing new. I've been thinking this for awhile. However, too many people I know are enthusiastically EV-DO users. (Me included. Well, maybe for all except the price and ridiculous contract usage restrictions.) This isn't going to last long before the embedded hardware catches up (such as with WiMAX) and broadband-class wireless is going to be fueling new business opportunities. Watch for Intel to continue to lead the way and fuel an adoption rate that surpasses that of WiFi.
It took several years for the WiFi industry to get its act together, but when it did things exploded. Many benefited. Notebooks for one. That's obvious. Home networking changed. Blogs did too--as well as other forms of single-person or personal publishing. People could blog or publish wherever the news was. Google has benefited also, because ads were ready whenever and wherever your WiFi connection was. Advertising wasn't going to be limited to 8 hours a day of "walled time" with your computer and maybe three or so hours at home after work. No. People were going to sit on the couch and use their notebook. People were going to sip coffee and browse the Net. People were going to take more of their work with them when the traveled.
WiMAX is on track for magnifying each of these trends by what, maybe another magnitude? Maybe two? It's going to mean people using their computers connected on the train, in the car, as they sit in the parking lot before heading into work, or sitting under a tree at the Grand Canyon.
How might this extra connectivity change how we use computers? Some of the current players are going to do well. There will be more interesting mobile devices. There will be more mobile-oriented advertising. There will be more multimedia on the Internet as we distance ourselves even more from the chains of the dial up connection.
It'll also mean that we'll want I imagine faster access to our information. When we pull the computer out of the bag to use it, we want to be able to start typing, writing, reading, listening, watching or whatever right away. The connectivity will be there. The data we seek should be too. The document needs to open right away. Likewise the stuff we'd have others not see, should be out of view by default.
I can't wait to see how this all works out. EV-DO is a good start. I love it. I know I want more though and I know others do too. Like WiFi, customers are going to pull this market along--assuming Intel and its partners can pull the hardware side off.
Posted by Loren at July 2, 2006 08:39 PM