13 Kas 2008

Is The HTC MAX 4G The First Wimax XOHM Phone?

Is The HTC MAX 4G The First Wimax XOHM Phone?

By Sascha Segan

No. Or maybe sorta. HTC today announced their first GSM/WiMAX phone, a Windows Mobile handheld called the MAX 4G. Swap out the GSM for CDMA - as HTC frequently does with their models - and you could be looking at the first phone to run on Sprint's new XOHM WiMax network.

The most interesting thing about the MAX 4G isn't the MAX 4G itself, but how much ballsier Russia's Yota Mobile WiMAX network is than our timid little Xohm. Sprint is right now focusing on being a very traditional ISP - Internet only, thank you very much, no services that could possibly cannibalize anyone else's existing voice or entertainment revenues. It's a disruptive technology used in the least disruptive way possible.

Yota offers a full video-on-demand service, 14 free TV channels, unlimited download of more than 50,000 songs, an e-book catalog, and both a VOIP voice calling service and video calls. Now that's a disruptive service.

The MAX 4G isn't a slacker, either. It has a huge 3.8", 800x480 touch-screen, a 5-megapixel camera, 8GB of built-in flash memory and a 528 Mhz processor. Even with all of that power, it's supposed to run for almost four hours of VOIP talk time (and more like seven hours with GSM.)

The HTC MAX 4G is coming out in Russia on Nov. 26th. A future US version? We'll see.

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