In a Techworld.com article today, Farpoint Group analyst Craig Mathias clarifies the difference between WiMAX, Wi-Fi and cellular technologies, and looks at the strengths of each technology in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

In the short term, at least, Mathias doesn't think much of WiMAX's prospects in competing with either Wi-Fi or cellular solutions.

"Can mobile WiMAX really compete with cellular?" Mathias asks. "Cellular-based wireless broadband services like 1xEV-DO, the version of 3G available in the US from Sprint and Verizon, and HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), available from Cingular, will eventually offer multimegabit data services - exactly the territory mobile WiMAX is targeting."

"While it's been theorised that the cost of mobile WiMAX base stations will be less than that of corresponding cellular equipment, the real costs in operating any wireless network are in spectrum (it's auctioned to the highest bidder), real estate and customer-related functions like marketing, sales and support," he writes. "WiMAX won't have any advantage in these."

And it's a mistake, Mathias says, to anticipate increasing competition between WiMAX and Wi-Fi. "Many people have been thinking of WiMAX as 'Wi-Fi on steroids,' and even that WiMAX will replace Wi-Fi over time," he writes. "Both of these suggestions are outside the bounds of reality. Wi-Fi is a wireless LAN and well on its way to ubiquity. Nothing can stop Wi-Fi, and it will challenge WiMAX in metro-scale applications."