Apple, HTC and Android devices could show up for WiMAX in 2009

KT, which - like most east Asian operators - takes a significant role in the development and design of the devices for its networks, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Apple to work together on mobile broadband enabled products. These would initially be for the current WiBro network, but since this will be upgraded to fully standard wave two Mobile WiMAX, as used by Xohm, as it expands, it should be a small step for Apple to create standards-based gadgets. WiBro would initially be embedded in lightweight MacBook laptops, reinforcing the notion that Apple is looking to push web optimized 'netbooks' through new operator channels, as its PC rivals are doing. KT and Apple would sell WiBro MacBooks bundled with broadband services through both companies' outlets. While this would break the dominance of Windows PCs, PDAs and smartphones on the WiBro network, appealing to a new group of users - especially younger, media-oriented consumers - it also shows KT following the traditional cellco model of subsidizing devices in order to tie in customers and lure subscribers to high end data and broadband plans. By contrast, Xohm has been vocal in supporting the role of WiMAX in breaking that model and enabling operators, through the IP economics of the new standard, to support open access from any user device, and to move away from subsidies. Apple is also looking to put WiMAX into the iPod media player, as it has already done with Wi-Fi, and this could pave the way for a future iPhone. Meanwhile, the other hot phonemaker in the US is currently Taiwan's HTC, thanks to being the first company to roll out and Android smartphone, the T-Mobile G1. This should prove a major revenue boost for the company, and its first serious move away from Windows devices, the mainstay of its well regarded Touch range of smartphones. Now HTC, insiders say, is planning a Windows Touch device for WiMAX, targeting Xohm and Russia's Scartel, and aims to produce an Android/WiMAX product next year. From HTC's point of view, these two moves would be in line with its strategy of stealing a march on larger players by supporting minority technologies at an early stage - it was the first cellphone manufacturer outside the pure ODM community to create Windows handsets, using them to establish a high end range under its own brand, rather than focusing entirely on white label devices, its original business model. But it is still ready to submerge its brand in order to gain early presence in a new and promising market, ahead of the competition, as it has done with G1. Given Xohm's devotion to open access, a WiMAX Android phone would not only enable HTC to be a first mover again, but also to launch an Android product under its own name. Android products for Xohm are widely expected for mid-2009, given that Google and Sprint Nextel have collaborated closely on the software platform and user experience, and Google is a major supporter of the open access web services model on which Xohm is pinning its hopes. On the Windows front, the WiMAX Touch is reported in various leaks to be called the HTC T8290 and to come with a large 800x480, 3.8-inch touchscreen, a five megapixel camera, built- in GPS and accelerometer, and triple-mode support for WiMAX, Wi-Fi and GSM. If the GSM element is correct, this would clearly be a handset targeted to more operators than Xohm, whose wide area roaming would naturally be to Sprint's CDMA network (and, with Sprint promising CDMA/WiMAX devices some time next year, surely HTC would create a CDMA version too?) Indeed, the first customer for the HTC product is slated to be Russia's Scartel, which is rolling out WiMAX in Moscow and St Petersburg under the Yota brand.