Apple prides themselves on always being on the cutting edge of technology - who had an MP3 player before we all got hooked on iPods? - and it looks like they're aiming to be one of the first manufacturers to jump on the WiMAX bandwagon.

It has been reported that devices like the iPod Touch and some notebooks may soon come equipped with WiMAX chips - in Korea, anyway. Apple and Korean provider KT Corp have signed a "memorandum of understanding," which, while not equivalent to an official partnership, does indicate that Apple is interested in the technology. It makes sense that they would choose Korea as their first market for WiMAX devices, since WiMAX has been available for a while now and covers a large number of subscribers.

Interestingly, one device the Korean market WONT be seeing WiMAX on is the iPhone. Korea hasn't even allowed the iPhone 3G to be sold in the country because Korea requires all smartphones to comply with the WIPI (Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability) standard, which requires that online-capable phones support Java as well as certain types of executable code. The requirement doesn't apply to the iPod Touch or MacBooks, so Apple would be allowed to integrate WiMAX on those devices.

While it is certainly exciting to see WiMAX expand to other devices, remember that there are a lot of downsides to integrated devices...

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