Mobile devices have morphed into something that would be unrecognizable just a decade ago. User demand for "everything mobile" has created a whole new market for smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDA's), and advanced mobile phones.

What differentiates smart phones and PDA's from a traditional mobile phone is their ability to merge telephone capabilities with those normally associated with a PC. These include E-mail, Internet access, unified messaging, and more. But these technologies are still limited by their limited bandwidth and wireless capabilities as users always have to be near a "hot spot" to get any type of reliable reception. And many of these same problems hold true for traditional mobile phones as they are limited by bandwidth and line-of-sight issues. This has resulted in dropped calls, bad reception, and consumer frustration.

That all changes with WiMAX.

WiMAX enables wireless smart phones and PDA's to extend their reach far beyond basic wireless communication. Now users can watch TV, download "money" from their bank accounts to wirelessly pay for items in stores, pay for road tolls simply by driving by a reader, flip through pages of an E-book, play real-time online games with players around the world, and much more.

For traditional mobile phones, WiMAX eliminates the drawbacks while dramatically extending the capabilities of the phones themselves. WiMAX base stations are set closer together, inexpensive, and can fit virtually anywhere (an existing streetlight pole for example). This means a low cost infrastructure and fast deployment regardless of operating the environment (city, country, or remote region). And users realize unparalleled connection speeds, whether they are riding in a car at 60 mph or having a coffee at the corner cafe.

A lot of this is dependent on the devices themselves. A video screen large enough to read a book on, combined with a keyboard, takes up space. And the battery consumption is significant when compared to traditional mobile devices. Even advanced cell phones require more energy than their traditional counterparts. That's where Beceem makes WiMAX a reality. Beceem's baseband and RF chipsets offer unprecedented performance yet consume minimal power and require minimal space. That means our partners gain remarkable flexibility when designing their products, since Beceem components are minimally intrusive; technologies can be further miniaturized, yet offer even greater end user benefits.