Cell phone phenom Nokia said they’re going to wait and see what happens with the mobile WiMax market before they take the big leap. They are planning their release for 2008 giving time for the market to be established.
While Nokia plans to start addressing WiMax in the coming months, it will be 2008 before they produce any mobile WiMax products per se. In an interview with VNUNet, Mikko Salminen, director of the fixed mobile convergence marketing at Nokia, said, “We are investing in WiMax but no-one knows how that market will develop.”
Salminen went on to say in the interview that Nokia is often early to market with new technologies but was a little too early during the WiFi movement, releasing products in 1999/2000. The market really didn’t flower until 2003.
At this point WiMax is still in its earliest stages. While the promises for the future are strong, its difficult to gauge its initial success. Still, a number of major U.S. cities including L.A., New York, Boston, Chicago and many others have started implementing WiMax already.
WiMax has a lot of uses though and these cities are hoping to take early advantage of these.Perhaps the biggest advantage is probably the distance. In a best-case scenario, developers claim a range of 31 miles. In most cases though, 3-5 miles is good because the optimum range includes a line of site.
Time will tell on whether or not Nokia is making the right decision. At this point though, they’re choosing not to go to fast into the industry.
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John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
