WiMax Same As Betamax, Says Nokia
For a time, it looked like Nokia couldn’t figure out whether it wanted to go the WiMax route, or not. Cases in point: the company trumpeted its WiMax internet tablet sometime in October 2008, only to can it last January. (did anyone even buy one?) Nokia also joined the WiMax Forum organization, only to leave and return a little while later with a board seat.
But the latest blunt comments from Nokia’s head of sales and manufacturing made it pretty clear: Nokia is going to support LTE, while WiMax is going the way of the Betamax.
“I don’t think the future is very promising [for WiMax]. This is a classic example of industry standards clashing, and somebody comes out as the winner and somebody has to lose. Betamax was there for a long time, but VHS dominated the market. I see exactly the same thing happening here,” Mr Vanjoki added.
Looks like the WiMax forum will be replacing a board seat in the near future.
WiMax and LTE are the two next-gen networks battling for supremacy in the wireless world. Both will support 100+ megabit connections and provide wide area coverage. While WiMax has the backing of giants Sprint Nextel, Intel, and Samsung, LTE has the support of the two biggest carriers in the USA: AT&T and Verizon Wireless. And now Nokia.
Nokia dismisses prospects of WiMax as wireless standard
Uhhh, also, LTE has backing from virtually every other carrier in the world, especially the GSM ones in Europe and Latin America, which means it will definitely eclipse WiMax in the battle for next-gen networks, just as GSM is nearly ubiquitous world-wide, while CDMA is predominantly North American…