According to Juniper Research, half of all mobile WiMAX subscribers will be located in Asia by the year 2013. This half will account for roughly 40 million subscribers concentrated mostly in Korea, Pakistan, Taiwan and Australia. The reason? It is believed that WiMAX’s growth will initially be spurred by areas where wired access was not a viable option. WiMAX’s ability to deploy quickly and efficiently in areas that were previously underserved will make it an attractive option for such countries and locales.

Top markets for 2013, according to the research, include the United States, Japan and South Korea. The caveats? Spectrum and devices. In order to reach a potential 80 million subscribers licenses must be acquired in a timely fashion. Furthermore, in order to utilize the WiMAX network, WiMAX-enabled devices will be an obvious necessity. Future projections on the success of WiMAX are hinged on these two elements. Therefore, as more spectrum is allocated and more devices are developed the likelihood of these future projections will continue to increase.

There’s been plenty of talk about how WiMAX could work wonders for device integration as well as inciting a new era for mobile devices. Now some evidence of that is becoming clearer in the gaming world with the first WiMAX-enabled gaming device. POSBRO, a Korea-based company, has developed the WiMAX, WiFi and Bluetooth-enabled G100. It features a four-inch LCD touchscreen with a slide-out gaming pad reminiscent of a somewhat sleeker and more compact Nintendo DS. The G100 will also utilize the Opera browser for a “PC-quality” internet experience. The device is set for release early this year in Korea and in late 2008 to early 2009 in the United States.

Needless to say the gaming industry is a huge one both in the United States and abroad. The mobile gaming industry in particular is poised for major growth, with revenue increasing from the millions to the billions, according to some projections.  If anything, it is thought that the somewhat limited nature of mobile technology in North America (slower connections, lapses in connectivity etc.) are what has hindered some of the potential growth in this area. WiMAX and the network speeds and reliability associated with it would allow for the development of more complex mobile games with richer graphics and better features. Devices like the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS have already made huge waves in the gaming industry without including particularly impressive web-based features. Devices like the G100 could set a new standard by raising the expectations of mobile gamers, thus realizing another niche WiMAX’s capabilities fall into. Simultaneously, the early introduction of WiMAX-enabled gaming devices would serve as a hook for the “YouTube generation” market; a market that plays a significant role in trend-setting and the successful adoption of new technologies.