This is an interesting debate, but I suspect the outcome is largely dependent on economics. Unlike LTE, WiMax is fulled spec'd. 2009 was supposed to be the year for it to catch up, but it seems the buildout is being held back by the economic situation. Where the economy goes, I don't have a good idea.

In the US, there is one important distinction in that LTE is really an evolution of the existing cellular industry, and all of the carrier-centric paradigms that come with it. However in Wimax via Clearwire, there is a different business model, with more input from the device and HW side, and from services, and also CATV companies who aspire to resell and bundle Wimax. Stop thinking of Xohm and Sprint. Although Sprint has a huge equity investment in Clearwire, it tends to make people think of cellular when it's not. It's not so much competing wireless technologies, as it is competing business models. Read the Clearwire reports if you can.