Suppose you want to buy an N810. Would you buy one now, or wait until summer to get the wimax version?

This is for a person who regularly spends time for work in US cities where there supposedly will be wimax (Chicago and New York).

The problem I have is evaluating if/when wimax will be available in these cities. Any feedback appreciated.

This is the classic chicken-and-egg bootstrap problem for new tech. No point in rolling out the infrastructure with no demand, no devices will sell without the infrastructure in place, so there's no demand... somebody has to be first.

Those with long experience with technology recognize that, in this pattern, whatever steps out first will also encounter all the problems first. There's a huge price associated with being an early adopter - you pay the highest price, and get to experience all the bugs. If you're a "technology enthusiast" looking for a new hobby, that's just fine. If you're trying to actually get work done, not so much.

IMHO, by the time WiMAX is working well (if that really happens) there will be NEWER devices out there to take advantage of it, that work far better than the first generation, and cost less.

I can't see paying an expensive premium just to do someone else's beta testing.

I'm happy with my N800 using a nokia E65* as a gateway when wifi isn't working. If the N800 had more power available on its USB port I could use my (employer provided) Huawei E172 3G modem adapter. I would guess that wimax adapters in USB form will become available too. Of course, none of this is as elegant as an N810-W but convergence into one device has the downside of converging obsolescence too!

* quad band GSM/GPRS/Edge + 3G (WCDMA - European).