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Beyond the laptop, the first high profile device for Sprint's WiMAX service, Xohm, will be the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, but on the horizon for 2009, we may see products from the two brands that are currently proving the big marketing hitters for the US cellcos - Apple and Google Android.

Hopes for a WiMAX Apple device are raised by reports that Korea Telecom will soon have Apple products for its network, based on its own 802.16e implementation, WiBro. KT has signed a memorandum of understanding with Apple to work together on embedding WiBro, and later full WiMAX, in lightweight MacBook laptops, and selling these bundled with services.

Apple is also looking to put WiMAX into the iPod media player, as it has already done with Wi-Fi, and this could pave the way for a future iPhone. If the Apple brand retains its undoubted pulling power in the US for the next couple of years, such gadgets could be significant boosts to uptake of Xohm and Clearwire services, and could accelerate the extension of usage patterns beyond the laptop to media and consumer products.

Meanwhile, the other hot phonemaker in the US is currently Taiwan's HTC, thanks to being the first company to roll out and Android smartphone, the T-Mobile G1. Now HTC, insiders say, is planning a Windows Touch device for WiMAX, targeting Xohm and Russia's Scartel, and aims to produce an Android/WiMAX product next year. From HTC's point of view, these two moves would be in line with its strategy of stealing a march on larger players by supporting minority technologies at an early stage.

Android products for Xohm are widely expected for mid-2009, given that Google and Sprint Nextel have collaborated closely on the software platform and user experience, and Google is a major supporter of the open access web services model on which Xohm is pinning its hopes.

On the Windows front, the WiMAX Touch is reported in various leaks to be called the HTC T8290 and to come with a large 800x480, 3.8-inch touchscreen, a five megapixel camera, built- in GPS and accelerometer, and triple-mode support for WiMAX, Wi-Fi and GSM. Its first customer should be Russia's Scartel, hence the initial focus on GSM rather than Sprint's CDMA for wide area roaming.

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