SHANGHAI (WiMAX Day). Global chipset manufacturer Intel predicts that laptop computers will soon become as ubiquitous as mobile telephones. ITNews reports that Intel’s executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer, Sean Maloney, told attendees at the HP Mobility Summit last week that broadband Internet will be the driving force behind the growth of laptop computers. “Our belief is that demand for voice fuelled the ramp for phones, something no-one anticipated at the time. What will drive the market for laptops is the internet,” Maloney said. Connectivity to these laptops is what will fuel the growth of WiMAX, and by 2012 Intel hope to have 1.3 billion people using WiMAX to connect to the Internet.