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Rounding out the week, I wanted to comment on some of the most interesting recent news.
1. Taking WiMAX to the Streets
According to GoingWiMax, Taipei City is implementing 1,000 taxis to be equipped with WiMAX. VMAX Telecom just began providing the free service March 9, 2010. Although I have never been to Taipei, I can only imagine how this will benefit riders. Anyone who has ever traveled in a NYC taxi knows all too well the benefits of viewing a live map as you travel down the street.
2. IDC Predictions Favor WiMAX
In other news, market research firm IDC released its top 10 predictions for the PC industry in 2010. Most interesting, they project that “shipments of portable PCs with WiMAX embedded will surpass shipments of portable PCs with 3G cellular embedded in 2010.”
3. Cisco Exits the WiMAX Industry
Finally, this week Cisco decided to no longer produce WiMAX gear, in an effort to remain as “radio-agnostic” as possible in the 4G race. Engadget wrote an interesting post titled, “Another one bites the dust: Cisco steps out of the WiMAX game.” While I believe any industry can benefit from the likes of Cisco playing in the market, quite frankly it was even more of a surprise to me when we heard they were entering the market. Cisco has never traditionally played in the wireless game, which is why the acquisition of Navini Networks was so interesting at the time. However, Engadget makes a good point, claiming that “CDMA has managed just fine in the shadow of GSM’s global domination over the past decade.” It is my belief that WiMAX has a
lot of life left both in the US and abroad, and we look forward to continuing to validate out business model in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned!
I would be curious to hear other thoughts on Cisco exiting the WiMAX market? Please do comment below — we’re listening. Or alternatively, like what you’ve read? You can share it on Twitter, Facebook, or any of the other social services listed below.
One Comment
Hardly a surprise that Cisco exited Navini. As you well know Jeff, this is now a pattern at Cisco – buy a promising wireless technology company, then after a few years, abandon it and strand all the investment that customers have invested in it. Clarity Wireless, now Navini – it’s kind of embarrassing, really, that Cisco cannot market a wide area Broadband Wireless Internet Access product. Such a product is a slam-dunk for mutli-site Enterprise customers. The way this corporate lack of competence is that Cisco tries to sell wireless as “wired networking, without the wires” instead of focusing on the numerous benefits of wireless capability. Cisco can’t even really get a commanding lead in the Wi-Fi market, despite numerous promising acquisitions.