Centrino 2 with WiMAX coming this summer

Intel announced it will introduce its next-generation Centrino 2 mobile platform, code-named Montevina, July 14. The platform is expected to offer faster performance and longer battery life, and is long awaited by the WiMAX community as it incorporates both WiFi and WiMAX, although the wireless chips won't be available until August. In addition, the platform is 40 percent smaller so that it can fit in mini-notebooks.

Intel, as you remember, invested $1 billion in the new Clearwire WiMAX business, which includes Sprint, cable companies and Google. Intel is hoping WiMAX incorporated in the new platform will do the same thing incorporating WiFi did, spur adoption. However, Clearwire's rollout will be on a market-by-market basis with 2010 or even 2011 delivering a reasonable footprint in the majority of the top 200 markets. That doesn't worry Intel though.

"When we launched our Centrino WiFi platform, there weren't a lot of WiFi hotspots, but people still bought it even though by itself, WiFi was not ubiquitous," Intel Vice President Sriram Viswanathan said in a recent conference call. "Centrino was still successful. We expect the same with Montevina because there are other value propositions in the platform."

For more about Intel's Centrino 2:
- check out this article [1] from InformationWeek

Related stories:
- New Sprint-Clearwire deal a shot in the arm for mobile WiMAX. See this Clearwire story [2]
- Intel among winners of 2.6 GHz spectrum in Sweden. See this Intel WiMAX story [3]