About 50,000 visitors are expected at the annual trade show Mobile World Congress which takes place in Barcelona from February 14 to 17. The world is buzzing with new Smartphones, tablets, applications and other techno-savvy gadgets that are entering the market. The competitors are merciless as they all attempt to dominate the industry.
Smartphone manufacturers try to counter Apple’s iPhone with the Blackberry Bold, Nokia C7, Samsung Galaxy S or HTC EVO. Mobile phone operating systems such as IOS, Android, RIM OS and Windows 7 are also dueling it out. However, amongst the wireless network technologies, a clear winner is on the rise. Most of the devices shown at the trade show run on the LTE network which makes it easy to assume that LTE could be the system of choice for mobile operators. Then, will Sprint and Clearwire, the two WiMax providers in the US, stand and fight or switch to LTE?
Could a future HTC EVO 4G work on LTE instead of WiMax? According to Bob Azzi, Sprint’s Senior Vice President of Networks, the company will consider the question of switching to LTE. In fact, this change should not hurt Sprint, who covers a huge part of the US and has deployed a lot of multi-mode equipment. A simple permutation of a baseband card and software upgrade should be sufficient.
As for Clearwire, the future is more uncertain. The company is having some financial issues and has tried to save itself by cutting employees and canceling some retail launches. The company does not plan to immediately shut down its 140 retail stores throughout the nation and has not confirmed a timeline yet .We will have more precise information after the company’s quarterly financial results announcement on February 17th.
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