Sequans puffs out its chest

WiMAX World was definitely Motorola's party, but tiny Sequans Communications almost stole the show. While Moto inundated the show floor and meeting rooms with demos of its live WiMAX network in Chicago, Sequans locked down deals with the rest of the show's exhibitors.

Its silicon may not be powering the base stations and terminals of the big three vendors building out Sprint's Xohm network, but wherever a smaller WiMAX player launches a rural or developing-market network or a Taiwanese company produces a data card, there's a good chance that gear comes embedded with a Sequans chip.

Georges Karam, CEO of Sequans, said that the momentum is positioning the company to be a major player in WiMAX silicon — a market that was supposed to be dominated by Intel and a handful of other large foundry giants. But Intel has yet to bring its latest generation of WiMAX chips to market — the silicon that will power the devices and laptops running on Sprint's new network. The result is that deals that would have likely gone to Intel have been shifting to tiny yet more nimble shops such as Beceem and Sequans.

Karam may be confident, but he says he's certainly not cocky or complacent. Intel is a force to be reckoned with, and Sequans has no illusions of knocking the giant off its mountain, especially considering the investments it has made in WiMAX. But the prospect of Intel dominating with 90% share is now a notion of the past, Karam said.

“WiMAX is not Wi-Fi; it's not just chips,” Karam said. “There is a protocol stack; there is a lot of software integration. It takes time to develop that expertise. When you come to the market late, you may be able to use your money to capture 30% of the market, but you can't dominate.”

Karam's predictions, however, may be premature, said John Jackson, an analyst for Yankee Group. The WiMAX market is still in its infancy, and the customer premises equipment and data cards deals that Sequans has struck will ultimately pale in comparison to the huge mobile device and laptop market WiMAX is expected to generate. So even if Intel is late in unveiling its chips, Jackson doubts Intel will find itself in a position of weakness.

“All of the big guys have the resources to fast follow or simply acquire any of the smaller guys,” Jackson said. “The same thing happened in the 3G market.”

But then again, Jackson added, WiMAX is not 3G. The old alliances that tied the device-makers to particular chip-makers don't necessarily apply to the WiMAX space, he said. If 80 different companies are making WiMAX products, as opposed to just a handful, Jackson said, there may very well be room for new silicon-makers to start emerging.