Market research In-Stat has found that nearly half of the respondents in a recent survey of U.S. early adopters planning to replace their cell phones want to see Wi-Fi functionality with their handsets reports MobileTechNews. To meet this demand the Wi-Fi Alliance hopes to have more than 100 different models of Wi-Fi/cellular phones in the marketplace by the end of the year. The In-Stat forecast suggests that 50 million Wi-Fi/cellular phones, which incorporate some form of SIP voice service, will ship by 2011.
Allen Nogee, In-Stat Principal Analyst, believes that Wi-Fi/Cellular based systems offer a significant head-start in the market, and that “Other technologies, such as WiMAX and Ultra Wideband, are also poised to enter the handset market, but Wi-Fi fills a unique niche that WiMAX and UWB cannot match.”
Early adopters want dual-mode phone capability [MobileTechNews]
Peter,
What does this mean to the market? How is it going to affect the lives of consumers? By cutting their phone bill? Improving connectivity? Speeding up mobile browsing?
What about the carriers? Aren’t they going to lose money when people switch to WiFi/SIP and away from the GSM or CDMA network with its time-based tariffs?
This was a perfect article for you to have made this blog worth reading. All it would have taken is a little bit of analysis to help the reader gain some perspective on the issue.
At the end of the day people want to come away from what they read not just a little better informed, but particularly with MobileCrunch and the readers that I used to speak to all the time, they want actionable information that leaves them better prepared to make decisions – investing decisions being on example – not just the regurgitation of a press release or the self serving quotes of another CEO pumping his company.
Readers want opinion, they want context, they want relevance, they want to know WHY you bothered to cover something and how that story is likely to influence their own lives, jobs, or mobility choices.
Oliver
Founding Author, MobileCrunch