Mobile WiMax chip builder Wavesat will arrive in Barcelona this week with high hopes, and a single chip UMobile 16e product - but with its sights set firmly on the long term. Chips won't ship till Q4, but the strategy is looking at 2012.
Adlane Fellah, CEO and Founder of Maravedis announced the Wavesat strategy this week and said: "We predict that there will be an accumulated 87 million broadband Wireless Access subscribers (excluding cellular) by the end of 2012, 67 million of which will be WiMAX subscribers."
Fellah thinks WiMAX will represent 90% of subscribers who are added in 2012, of whom 75% will be using 802.16-2005 technology.
Some other predictions: "WiMAX chipsets will start to be embedded into laptops in the beginning of 2008, into handheld devices in the beginning of 2009, and into consumer electronics in the beginning of 2010. In this context, Wavesat who has been a pioneer in the development of WIMAX SOCs is well positioned to tap into this future competitive WIMAX mobile market."
