Intel is trying to buy a wireless Clue.

That's the story it's telling by investing in Craig McCaw's Clearwire.

The deal, announced at the CTIA's San Francisco conference, is that Clearwire will use Intel WiMax gear and, in exchange, Intel will invest in Clearwire. Essentially Clearwire gets the gear for stock.

Of course there's more to it than that.

Intel is anxious to get on top of wireless trends. It has been falling behind, mainly because rivals like Broadcom have a stranglehold on the manufacturing process, which involves U.S. and Japanese companies ordering gear through Taiwanese OEMs. (Intel tried to get the OEMs to think, and they really don't have time for that.)

Long story short, WiMax is Intel's effort to get back in front of things, and Clearwire is committed to building a big WiMax footprint. If Intel is inside the gear providing the service, that jump-starts the market for client gear, and make it more likely Intel will be inside there, too.

But it won't work unless wireless ceases to be communication and becomes a real platform, that is, something you build on. Today's WiFi gear is usually built on consumer electronic operating systems. We need robust, scalable, modular operating systems if we're going to build applications.

That's a detail that's not in this deal. The devil is in that detail.

UPDATE: Word-up to Craig McCaw. Stop trying to be funny. "No one technology wears out. Look at Western Union. They are moving money for al-Qaida now." A lawyer may ask you to prove that one, and if you can't your big mouth may mean Western Union owns you, not for a song but for a laugh. Dumb.