Upwardly Mobile: That WiMax 3G phone tablet thing

WiMax is starting to show up in phones - but is this really a good idea? Jo Best weighs in on the mobile plans for this much-hyped wireless technology.

Remember the UMPC - or ultra mobile PC to the uninitiated? Remember when the first lot of the Windows-powered mini-computers came out, how we scoffed that they wouldn't replace any of the dainty gadgets we carry day to day?

I could be wrong here but I think Samsung may have cracked that whole mobile-PC convergence thing. Behold the delightfully sci-fi Samsung SPH-P9000.

The P9000 is not strictly a UMPC, it's a more mobile-centric type of device and far smaller - about half the size of Samsung's first UMPC. I haven't tried it out yet and the device is not perfect but the form factor alone shows that there really is some interesting work going on around the convergence of mobiles and PCs.

The P9000's got phone and PC functionality in one - great. OK, the camera's resolution is a measly 1.3 megapixels but the fact one has been included shows this device sees its competition as the mobile rather than the PC: Samsung is gunning for a more mass-market proposition than the UMPC.

The inclusion of the fold-out Qwerty keyboard on the P9000 is a nice touch. Can we expect a BlackBerry along the same lines soon?

But let's cut the P9000-related applause short for a minute and take a look at the connectivity this device packs. It supports two wireless standards - mobile WiMax and CDMA 1x EVDO, a variant of 3G found in Asia and the US. It will be split just so: WiMax for web browsing, 3G for voice. This is the point where the P9000 seems to come unstuck.

It's an interesting strategy - though it doesn't seem like a great one to me, unless I'm missing something.

Is the plan to stream video and send hulking great email attachments over WiMax but for a teensy-tiny little voice call, go back to 3G? Or is Samsung saying WiMax is less reliable, or more likely to become a niche play compared to 3G? If it's the latter, do I want to rely on WiMax to stream video and send hulking great attachments when I have a wi-fi enabled laptop knocking around somewhere?

The whole idea of WiMax, according to its cheerleaders, is that it will offer a single wireless network for both voice and data - the P9000 seems to undermine that.

So why the dual-mode device? The operators, I'd wager. The traditional mobile operators won't put a device on their roster - and this is clearly a mobile device - if they think it will undermine their revenues, and that's precisely what WiMax threatens to do. By including 3G, Samsung leaves the door open for the operators to keep making money from their existing networks and therefore to keep subsidising devices such as - you've guessed it - the P9000.

But if operator-pleasing is Samsung's strategy, why include WiMax at all? Well, a few mobile operators are looking at WiMax already - Sprint in the US is one and Korea Telecom in Samsung's home market. And most of the big players have at least got it on their radar.

In short, it looks like Samsung is playing to the crowd. 'You want WiMax? We can do you WiMax. You're never giving up 3G? We can help you there too.' Whether it's in the best interests of the user remains up for debate but at least they've picked a cunning crowd-pleasing strategy for the operators.

Like any emerging technology, WiMax is jammed throat-deep in hype. But will it, and devices like the SPH-P9000, take off? I have a sneaking suspicion they might do. Recently I caught up with Adrian Fegan, head of ICT at Leeds City Council, to talk about fixed-mobile convergence. Fegan is already contemplating the age of applications WiMax connectivity will herald. And if the users are already getting interested, there's got to be something in that there long-range wireless broadband.