Wimax device market on the rebound: Infonetics

A third consecutive quarter of growth in Wimax device sales in Q4 failed to overturn a dismal start to the year, resulting in a 19% decline in sales year-on-year in 2009.
 
The yearly drop means revenues from Wimax device sales were $1.08 billion (€798 million) in 2009..
 
Research firm Infonetics says quarterly revenues remain below the pre-recession highs of $300 million found in 2008, but notes that deployments of the technology are on the up, particularly in the US, Russia and Japan.
 
Motorola was the largest vendor of combined equipment and devices in 2009, with a 17% market share, but was followed closely by Alvarion.
 
Huawei was the fastest-growing Wimax equipment vendor by market share.
 
The number of Wimax subscribers jumped 75% year-on-year to 6.8 million, Infonetics added.
 
“With Clearwire in the US announcing strong quarterly results, Yota in Russia expanding rapidly, and others such as UQ in Japan being aggressive, the Wimax business model seems to be working,” Infonetics analyst Richard Webb said.
 
“Though we are still in the early days, Wimax is proving to be a good fit in a range of broadband segments in developed as well as developing markets.”