Sidecut Reports

Had a lot of calls today from folks who saw our quote in a Sprint Overdrive ad in USA TODAY — never doubt the power of the mainstream media! Since it’s been a little bit since the post that Sprint quoted, we’ve handily reprinted it here below. Enjoy!

Pocketspots Bust Out — Sprint’s Overdrive a Winner at CES (Originally published Jan. 10, 2010)

Looking back, it’s clear we didn’t do justice to Sprint’s introduction of its Overdrive mobile hot spot product — such is the problem of holding a late-night event at CES, when your audience may be distracted from blogging or writing in the moment, as they say.

Overall, it was a boffo product announcement, hitting all the big-time notes (silly comedian Frank Caliendo, star turn from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, over-the-top after-announcement party food from celebrity chef Mario Batali) but most importantly it delivered a shipping-now, easy to use and understand product in the form of the Overdrive pocketspot from Sierra Wireless, which combines 3G and 4G connectivity into an in-your-pocket package. At $99 for the device and $60 a month for the data plan — same as most standalone 3G aircards — the Overdrive is a no-brainer decision if you are a road warrior who spends any amount of time in Sprint’s already operating 4G markets.

In our brief bit of hands-on testing at CES (the Sprint folks were kind enough to lend us an Overdrive for evaluation) we found the Overdrive incredibly simple to operate — just push one button and BOOM, as Caliendo would say in his trademark John Madden imitation, your WiMAX-enabled Wi-Fi hotspot was up and running. And even in the challenging airwave atmosphere of the Las Vegas Convention Center, we were able to live-Tweet the FCC chairman’s talk, via the Overdrive sitting in our suit jacket pocket. Nice.

Not to be outdone, pocketspot veterans Cradlepoint were showing their latest wares in a suite in the Wynn — while not yet available the company’s “Project Tablerock” mobile hotspot with docking station will likely be an extremely attractive choice for Clearwire users, since it features a portable WiMAX modem that becomes your home modem when you drop it into its two-antenna charging/docking station.

According to Cradlepoint folks who showed us the Tablerock unit, the docking station antennas give the unit a significant reception boost — never a bad thing when it comes to wireless connectivity. Look for the Tablerock and maybe more (!) pocketspot modems for Clearwire and its partners as the first quarter of 2010 comes to a close. (Bad phone-cam picture of Overdrive and Tablerock side by side follows.)

Sprint’s Overdrive by Sierra Wireless, left, and Cradlepoint’s Tablerock, in the wild at CES.

The master of mobile disaster speaks, and we listen: Wondering what to call the new class of cool portable routers that provide mobile Wi-Fi hotspots … in your pocket? Andy Abramson, who probably already owns all types manufactured so far (except the WiMax-powered Clear Spot) has dubbed them…
POCKETSPOTS.

Expect a Kleiner Perkins PocketSpot fund to arrive shortly.

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from our just-released Clearwire NTK, or “Clearwire Need To Know” report for June 2009, a $4.95 research report that delivers the most up-to-date information available about the nation’s nascent national WiMax provider. In this excerpt Sidecut Reports looks at the Clear Spot, the portable WiMax/Wi-Fi router that we think could be a game-changer for Clearwire. If you like this and want more, order the report — for $4.95 it’s hard to go wrong. (Report also available in Kindle format from the Amazon store.)

Devices Update: ‘Clear Spot’ Could be a Real Game-Changer

Scott Richardson showing us the Clear Spot prototype at the Jan. 6 Portland launch.

When Clearwire chief strategy officer Scott Richardson first showed us the “Clear Spot” prototype at the Portland launch event, we guessed (correctly) that it would create huge buzz in the tech blogging world, and it sure did. The idea of a mobile router that could create a Wi-Fi hotspot just about anywhere is one of those things that is instantly understandable and incredibly liberating, most likely in ways that providers like Clearwire (or the cellular companies) haven’t yet thought of.

The main “Clear Spot” device, manufactured by mobile-router specialist Cradlepoint, uses a USB device to connect to the WiMax network on the back end; it then can provide extremely local service to as many as eight separate Wi-Fi clients, a list that could include laptops, iPhones, iPod Touch, or any other Wi-Fi enabled device.

What makes Clearwire’s offering different from the cellular providers’ similar offerings (like the MiFi router now being sold by Verizon and Sprint) is that with purchase of the appropriate service plan, there is no limit on how much data or what applications can be used via the Clear Spot, the kind of “do whatever you want” freedom that often spurs unforeseen Internet innovation. While it’s still too early in the device’s life cycle (and still too early for Clearwire to have enough markets to test it in), it’s easy to see the Clear Spot being a no-brainer for college students who need and/or want fast, ad hoc access to the Internet, or for business workgroups who want to set up powerful hotspots on the fly.

The fact that only one device — the Clear Spot — needs a dedicated WiMax connectivity device is also a huge factor in spurring potential service adoption, since users then don’t need to upgrade currently owned devices that already likely have a Wi-Fi chip inside. Clearwire right now sells the Clear Spot for an additional $139.99, but prices here could also go down as the device morphs into a planned streamlined verison that includes built-in WiMax connectivity.

“Strategically, people get it on how to use the Clear Spot,” said Richardson. “We’re already getting calls asking how to hook it to a PlayStation3, and if we offer a 12-volt connection so people can plug it into their cars.”

Want to know more about Clearwire device plans for 2009, as well as market launches and business plans for the company? Order our Clearwire NTK June 2009 report for just $4.95 and get everything you NEED TO KNOW about the nation’s nascent WiMax provider.