Hello!
And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
I would like to start this week’s WOTW with a little song, though not sung by me as to leave your ears blood-free:
Star Wars,
If they should bar wars,
Please let these Star Wars,
Staaayyy.
Who can forget those lyrics from your favorite lounge singer and mine: Nick Winters.
But, what may you be asking, does that song have to do with the price of a ringtone? Well that little ditty always enters my head whenever talk turns to technology wars.
You see, over the past several weeks I have attended a pair of industry trade shows as diverse as the PCIA event that is focused on the tower industry and most recently the Mobile Internet World event that is focused on, … wait for it,… the mobile Internet. And at both of these shows I attended different educational sessions or panels focused on the perceived tech battle brewing between WiMAX and LTE for 4G supremacy.
Both events included very intelligent people providing compelling cases for either technology that if heard in a vacuum would tempt me to name my first child – or more realistically my first plant – after either technology.
Sure, these technology wars are no where near as awesome as Star Wars, (especially Episodes 4 and 5, which just rocked the house!) but they are relevant to the mobile space, which I presume is why you are on our Web site. Also, technology wars have a long and glorious histories in the wireless space with some old-timers are still known to spin tales of past battles.
So what of the newest tech wars? Well, I find them to be both hilarious and drop-dead funny. (The difference you ask? Well I laugh at hilarious things, and usually drop dead from drop-dead funny things.)
The hilarious part is how there is even a perceived competition between the two technologies. I mean there are like 4 companies that have backed WiMAX and like 4 million that have backed LTE. Where’s the competition? (Those numbers might be exaggerated, but you get the point.) For there to be real competition there should be at least some semblance of a real threat each one has on the other. It’s like saying there is a rivalry between the New York Giants and the Sacred Heart Church of the Blind Giants prep football team because they both play football and claim to be giants. (Is that reference a bit too mean-spirited? Fair enough. How about the rivalry between those few Mike Dano supporters who also hate puppies and rainbows and the many that love freedom and puppies and support me.) You might have a soft spot in your heart for the SHCotB Giants, but come-on, where are you going to put your money?
Don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for those hearty WiMAX supporters. Despite initial backing from only a handful of companies, many of which were smaller players in the traditional mobile space, they put together an impressive technology standard in world-record time that while not quite living up to much of its early hype (a gazillion megabit per second data speeds with a range of 30,000 square miles per cell site) has recently been commercially launched by those under-achievers at Sprint Nextel.
But, the supporters behind LTE are just too massive and influential in the wireless space to make it a fair fight. The technology might be a few years behind WiMAX in commercial deployments, but one Verizon Wireless executive said at the MIW event that the carrier would begin rolling out the technology in early 2010, and with strong support from other carriers like Vodafone Group, China Mobile and AT&T Mobility, the LTE camp packs quite a punch. In fact the best line I heard at either event was from 3G Americas CEO Chris Pearson, a supporter of LTE, who when questioned about a possible merging of 4G technologies said: “When you have 88% of the market, there is really no need to merge.” Good stuff.
So, in the end it appears that like CDMA’s eventual position as a thorn in the side of GSM but not a real threat to its global domination, WiMAX looks set for second banana position in the 4G world.
OK! Enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this Worst of the Week column. And now, some extras:
–So Motorola is looking upscale in its attempts to recapture some of its past Razr-allure. The company announced plans for its new Aura device that is inspired by “luxury watches and handcrafted design.” The device includes a stainless steel housing, textures and patterns chemically etched into its surface, is “capped with a Grade 1, 62-carat sapphire crystal lens,” which I believe is also Superman’s Achilles’ heel, and has bits of real panther in it, so you know it’s good. For those looking to score such a luxurious device, that I believe does also include basic cellphone functionality, the line forms behind me.
–On the other end of the scale, Leap Wireless this week announced it would begin selling Nokia’s 1606 device. This awesome device includes such sweet features as “an internal antenna,” “a 96 x 32 monochrome external display,” and a “voice memo recorder.” Though the press release did not specifically spell it out I’m also assuming the phone includes a keypad and an earpiece.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@crain.com. Or, if you prefer, leave a comment in the space below.
