Intel Developers Forum is around the corner, and expect nothing else but a full scale assault by the Chipzilla as it hypes up WiMAX. Rick Merritt writes in EE Times: “Intel will host a smorgasbord of announcements during IDF covering areas including WiMax, ultrawideband and PC management technology for the digital office.” Silicon Valley venture capitalists are driving themselves to a frenzy over this technology. Never mind the practical problems with it. “With a market that could be worth anywhere from $2 billion to $9 billion annually by 2009, WiMax has become a high-stakes Silicon Valley game. More than 150 companies, ranging from corporate giants to tiny Silicon Valley startups, have joined the international WiMax Forum to help set standards for the emerging industry,” writes San Jose Business Journal. Ouch – do the math, and you see with 150 competitors, the pickings are going to be slim. “I don’t think anybody has made any crazy promises with respect to what it could do,” Heidi Goldstein, a researcher in the broadband wireless practice for RHK Inc., a telecommunications consultancy based in South San Francisco to the SJBJ. “The most conservative way to view it is as a DSL extension. But as it develops into a more ubiquitous type of network, the images people have of Dick Tracy watches and Star Trek tricorders aren’t really crazy at all.” To get a full lowdown on all the WiMAX problems, read, What if WiMAX is too hard?