Acer Joins Open Patent Alliance To Push WiMAX
We've seen Acer demonstrate a few of its notebooks with WiMAX modules built in, so it's no real surprise to hear that this very company has decided to join the Open Patent Alliance (OPA), a group dedicated to offering intellectual property rights (IPR) solutions that support the development and widespread adoption of WiMAX. In fact, Acer has become the very first global PC OEM board member, and we're told that it will help the proliferation of WiMAX technology, devices and applications around the world.
If you'll recall, the OPA was originally formed in June of 2008 by the likes of Alcatel-Lucent, Alvarion, Cisco, Clearwire, Huawei Technologies, Intel Corporation, and Samsung Electronics, and it's about time a major notebook maker joined the fray. OPA President Yung Hahn had this to say about the addition: "We are proud to welcome Acer to the OPA. Adding their voice further strengthens the support for an innovative and open WiMAX ecosystem. Taking a collaborative approach to IPR issues, the OPA can continue to foster greater WiMAX innovation, collaboration and competition. The OPA is excited to expand the reach of the 4G WiMAX ecosystem to include non-traditional companies like Acer – a leading innovator on the cusp of the computing/cellular convergence revolution."
Sure, most of that is just lip service, but Acer's no small name in the laptop world. Frankly, WiMAX needs all the promotion it can get, particularly with LTE already notching serious support from most major cellphone carriers. Today, Acer offers several embedded-WiMAX notebooks and netbooks from the Acer Aspire and Acer TravelMate lines around the world, and we can only imagine that more and more will show up now that its allegiance is out there in the open.
If you'll recall, the OPA was originally formed in June of 2008 by the likes of Alcatel-Lucent, Alvarion, Cisco, Clearwire, Huawei Technologies, Intel Corporation, and Samsung Electronics, and it's about time a major notebook maker joined the fray. OPA President Yung Hahn had this to say about the addition: "We are proud to welcome Acer to the OPA. Adding their voice further strengthens the support for an innovative and open WiMAX ecosystem. Taking a collaborative approach to IPR issues, the OPA can continue to foster greater WiMAX innovation, collaboration and competition. The OPA is excited to expand the reach of the 4G WiMAX ecosystem to include non-traditional companies like Acer – a leading innovator on the cusp of the computing/cellular convergence revolution."
Sure, most of that is just lip service, but Acer's no small name in the laptop world. Frankly, WiMAX needs all the promotion it can get, particularly with LTE already notching serious support from most major cellphone carriers. Today, Acer offers several embedded-WiMAX notebooks and netbooks from the Acer Aspire and Acer TravelMate lines around the world, and we can only imagine that more and more will show up now that its allegiance is out there in the open.
