Fine, More WiMax For The Rest Of Us

It's nice to have one's perspective validated by people who get paid to have them. Gerson Lehrman Group has an analysis of Nortel's WiMax market exit that basically boils down to the fact that this says more about Nortel than it does about WiMax, and that it means more, not less, opportunity for remaining manufacturers:

Nortel cannot afford to devote any resources to niche markets in which it has not built a leading position. Its abandonment of WiMax even as a reseller helps remaining WiMax vendors who are fignting over a limited opportunity, which lies primarily in otherwise underserved environments for broadband access.

This is an opinion I expressed in the comments on several of the "WiMax is dead" stories that made the rounds after Nortel's announcement. The bottom line is that the Alvarion deal was a hedge Nortel made against WiMax succeeding, and they don't want to pay for that hedge any more. In a way I think it was inevitable, because I don't think anyone who was on the fence, considering Nortel as a vendor, would necessarily have accepted Alvarion as a substitute. Questions about Nortel's commitment, and about who would support the gear, came up immediately. In other words, I doubt the Nortel-Alvarion deal got any orders from companies that weren't already seriously considering Alvarion as a vendor. Anyone who had been looking at Nortel was probably scared off by the Alvarion deal.