In its latest report, ABI Research is bullish on the potential of 802.11n to permeate all facets of connected electronics. Just how many radios are we going to stuff into our gadgets and where will WiMax fit into the picture?Comparing WiMax to Wi-Fi isn't exactly an apples-to-apples scenario. WiMax is a WWAN technology and Wi-Fi is a WLAN technology. But we're beginning to see more and more devices, such as the iPhone or HTC Wing, that have both WWAN and WLAN radios in them for data services. Are phones or laptops equipped with WiMax, Wi-Fi, and cellular data capabilities such as EV-DO realistic, or will tech vendors opt for two of the three?

Sprint and its technology partners are banking a lot on the potential of WiMax as a next-generation networking technology. As Samsung, Nokia, and others build out the first test networks for Sprint, which should go live at the end of this year, one question on my mind is, what devices will people use to connect to them?

Sprint has envisioned a range of consumer electronics that will be WiMax data-capable, but exactly what form factors they will take hasn't been revealed. So far the only one hinted at is the Nokia N800 Linux-based Internet tablet (which also has Wi-Fi, by the way). A handheld, Web-browsing device such as the N800 certainly makes sense. Samsung is also committed to delivering consumer electronics to Sprint by the end of the year. Whether it will be a mobile phone or some other piece of hardware is unknown.

At the same time, the proliferation of 802.11n-equipped devices is moving forward. More and more laptops and routers are being outfitted with the latest generation of Wi-Fi technology, which increases bandwidth and allows for better streaming of video content through the airwaves. But ABI thinks that it will be more than just laptops carrying the 802.11n torch into the home.

"Many consumer electronics vendors see Wi-Fi as the primary way to get network-delivered content to their devices," said ABI research director Michael Wolf in a prepared statement. "As consumers increasingly source video content on the Internet and look towards multi-room distribution, older Wi-Fi technologies don't have the bandwidth to deliver this content, particularly over longer ranges. 802.11n, in particular 5-GHz solutions using 40-MHz-wide channels, will help alleviate these constraints."

ABI goes on to say that "demand from consumers and device manufacturers to unleash video entertainment around the home will create a need for high-speed networking technology, leading to 216 million 802.11n chipsets being targeted towards consumer electronics devices by 2011."

I suppose it is feasible to imagine more devices like the N800 that have WiMax and Wi-Fi on board, but not cellular data radios. What that says about the future of cellular services -- at least as far as Sprint is concerned -- I'm not sure.

One thing we can count on is that electronic devices of all sorts will continue to have more ways to connect wirelessly to various types of networks. With WiMax about to jump into the wireless networking pool, the water will likely get murkier. At least for a little while.