Gear Diary at Samsung Summit: WiMAX, Phones, and More

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.geardiary.com/?p=1548' target='_blank'>http://www.geardiary.com/?p=1548</a><br /><br /></div><i>"I am the first to admit that I don’t know everything there is to know about the different wireless data protocols and their acronyms, but I generally have a good idea of what each is and what the initials used mean. CDMA, WiFi, UMTS, EDGE, GPRS, EVDO, Bluetooth…no problem, I’ve got it. But until this week I had never heard of WiMAX. What is WiMAX? Think 4G. Think the next big thing for broadband data speeds on a mobile device. Think CDMA. Think Sprint."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20061219-GearDiaryWiMAX.jpg" /><br /><br />Judie was at Samsung Summit this week in New York, and took detailed notes on their wireless vision, including handsets, wireless technology, and their view of how devices would be used. Hit the link above for an <b>extremely</b> long article with minute detail on every subject including some discussion on their vision of how WiMAX will shape the future.

[Judie Lipsett Hughes]

Janak, you say extremely like it's a bad thing. :)

[ADBrown]

I'm just shocked that you've made it this long without hearing about WiMax. Did you get your computer hype-proofed? :)

Anyway, as I suspect you gathered from their presentation, WiMax isn't technically a CDMA or even a 4G cellular standard, but Sprint intends to use it that way. It's more of an long-range sibling to WiFi, albeit a bit less standardized.

Oh, and those speeds they're quoting are a bit optimistic--WiMax is "only" expected to run at average speeds around 10 Mbits. :lol: I know that NTT DoCoMo has been playing with 100 Mbit moving and 1 Gbit fixed speeds for other 4G technologies, but they're a long way from active deployment.

[Judie Lipsett Hughes]

I guess I had tuned out all of the hype. :lol:

[Janak Parekh]

Janak, you say extremely like it's a bad thing. :)
Sorry, that was not my intention. ;) That said, I couldn't read the entire article myself... the amount of detail in it is staggering. Kudos for writing it up; I know how much work it is to do it.

--janak