SANTA CLARA (WiMAX Day). At an investor conference last week at its Silicon Valley compound, Intel CEO Otellini told financial analysts that he believed Intel can “triple the market for [its] products.” Part of this future success Intel believes will come from WiMAX.

Sean Maloney, EVP for Sales and Marketing at Intel, said that there should be 650 million people around the world that will be under WiMAX coverage by 2010. The numbers would seem to support this claim.

Maloney noted that there are 281 WiMAX networks being deployed today, with an ecosystem that includes 29 companies manufacturing equipment for WiMAX network infrastructures, 15 companies set to deliver WiMAX radio chips, and another 19 offering baseband chipsets based on the IEEE 802.16e standard.

In addition to a broad ecosystem, WiMAX can today boast a significant and expanding spectrum base. According to a presentation by Sriram Viswanathan, Vice President at Intel Capital, WiMAX can scale to almost 4 billion pops. Moreover, new spectrum for WiMAX may spur as much as USD 15 billion in new investments this year.

Along with network and equipment investments, this will result in estimated WiMAX subscriber revenues of USD 16 billion by 2012.

This year is crucial for WiMAX as products for mobility get into the hands of consumers. Intel has been a major supporter of WiMAX for several years, and the company expects its investments to pay-off soon.

The bulk of this benefit will come from the sale of silicon. The current road-map for WiMAX at Intel will soon deliver an integrated WiFi/WiMAX module code-named “Echo Peak.” According to an Intel spokesman, this module “will be optional for PC manufacturers to include in their next-generation Centrino 2-based (codenamed Montevina) laptops later this year.” PC manufacturers are not required to include the WiMAX functionality in their systems based on Centrino 2, but will have the option of either the stand-alone WiFi component, or Echo Peak.

Also in the planning is “Baxter Peak,” a lower-power WiMAX-only version of Echo Peak, that does not include WiFi. It is specifically designed for mobile Internet and CE devices. In addition, Intel also expects to release “Dana Point,” which is its reference design for add-in PC cards.”

The first wave of WiMAX is rolling out now,” Maloney said in an interview with Investor’s Business Daily last week. “It will be a busy year. You’ll see lots of new kinds of devices.”

New products powered by a strong line-up of processors will lead the growth of WiMAX in the short term, but the underlying strength of WiMAX development is largely attributed to its cost advantages.

For example, Viswanathan noted that the first genration WiFi/WiMAX chip will come to market at roughly one-third less than the cost of current 3G solutions.

Combined with new and innovative business models for flexible service, embedded devices, and open Internet access, Intel says the reality of WiMAX is here today, and it’s just going to get better.