According to a Boy-Genius four-liner, there’s a rumor that the Nokia N810 will launch with WiMax soon. I don’t see many people jumping up and down with joy though. A clutch of users in Baltimore perhaps but even these people are still wondering how much it’s going to cost.
WiMax on the N810 is at most, a demonstrator for the Xohm ecosystem so I personally think it’s one we can ignore as end users. If Nokia wanted to make a peoples product they would drop a 2.5G modem inside and partner with someone to make a $20 per month contact but I doubt that would be on the cards for this generation of the device. Nokia have a lot to do to bring the UI and software standards up to consumer levels so it wouldn’t make sense to push the tablet into the mainstream just yet. It would just end up with a bunch of unhappy customers expecting an iPhone-esque experience.
Its good to see WiMax gaining momentum. God knows America needs something that will allow them to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of mobile connectivity. It has been really interesting to hear the negative stateside response to Ericsson’s comment about hotspots dying and it highlights how far behind the infrastructure is in comparison with Europe and a lot of Asian cities. In Germany, T-Mobile have just announced a pay-as-you go 7.2mbps 3.5G deal which undercuts their own hotspot product. As they are the biggest hotspot provider in Germany, it gives us some idea of where the carriers think this is going! Go WiMax!
