Last month Intel's mobility chief Sean Maloney was in the hunt to head H-P, a job that eventually went to Mark Hurd of NCR. (Watch out. Dana is about to criticize a fellow Truly Handsome Man.)

But how well is Maloney doing his current job?

Intel's role in the development of Always On is crucial, and its strategy today seems muddled. It's not just its support for two different WiMax standards, and its delay in delivering fixed backhaul silicon while it prepares truly mobile solutions.

I'm more concerned with Maloney's failure to articulate a near-and-medium-term wireless platform story, one that tells vendors what they should sell today that will be useful tomorrow.

Intel seems more interested in desktops and today's applications than it is in the wireless networking platform and tomorrow's applications.

Incoming CEO Paul Otellini says Intel is going to sell a platforms story, not a pure technology story. Platforms are things you build on.

The Intel ixp series of communications chips (left), one of Intel's most troubled product lines, could be the foundation of this platform.

The ixp chips can go into a wide variety of gear. They can support robust, scalable modular operating systems like Linux, as well as wireless standards like 802.11 and cellular.

You can build a residential gateway with the ixp chip that can be enhanced next year, and the year after that, so buyers don't lose their investment. That's not true with conventional gateways built on things like VxWorks.

The platform story is there to be told. VxWorks will provide a back-end that lets you write Linux applications to its future stuff. The world is moving in this direction.

But Maloney must lead it. And he's not doing that. Personally I think he's so obsessed with putting WiMax support into conventional notebooks that he's not thinking about what applications wireless broadband is built for.

The answer is -- new applications. Always On applications. Applications that use the Internet, in the air, scalable operating systems, and data you create in your daily life. Applications that work for you automatically, that you only interact with when you need to act on what they know.

• Fixed wireless broadband can link to chips on your person which measure your heart, your blood, your temperature, even your movements.
  
• Fixed wireless broadband can link to sensor networks in your lawn, reducing your need for water while letting your garden grow, and in your home, reducing your need for heat and light while letting you stay comfortable.
  
• Fixed wireless broadband can provide security. Fixed wireless broadband can find your keys. Fixed wireless broadband can track what's in your kitchen, and let you know if you need to go to the store tonight before you start cooking.
  

All this just for starters.

Connect this to any Internet backhaul and you have a platform for Always On applications, using data created naturally in your daily life. These are applications that can save you money, save us energy, and save your life. They can be built now, delivered now, not just to industry and office complexes but to ordinary homes.

But in order to make this happen we need leadership. We need vision. We need Intel to say these things, because no one is going to take my word for it.

If Sean Maloney doesn't have the vision for this job, Otellini should find someone who does and pay them what they're worth. Even if he's got a full head of hair on his head.