Scotty, I don’t think you’re considering the players in this story. Sprint, Intel, Samsung, and Motorola don’t add up to an enterprise-only market. Furthermore, the press release clearly describes the consumer market as a target.

Personally, I don’t see this making a dent in EV-DO right now. People who want high-speed now will continue to sign up. Furthermore, the press release points out that their WiMax devices will be compatible with Sprint’s existing EV-DO system. If anything, this encourages signing up for Sprint’s EV-DO service since they presumably will offer to upgrade customers to the new WiMax network.

That said, I’m already wary of this news. The press release only indicates connectivity using WiMax chipsets, as opposed to common wifi as can be done in the massive wifi cloud in Oregon (http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,69234,00.html). To me, that’s an opportunity missed for the sake of locking customers into specific devices. Might be necessary, but it dampens my enthusiasm.

WiMax and EvDO Rev A are two different markets.

EvDO is internet for a cell phone/computer mobile users. Rev A just lets the carriers service more data customers per cell rather than have to get out the cleaver and terminate “abusive” data customers to keep things working smoothly.

WiMax is the replacement for T1’s used by businesses to connect to the internet. They may also pick up a few high end consumers (using/or wishing they could use high end DSL circuits) as well.