Skip to main content

More VoIP Apps and Wi-Fi in Mobile Phones

Mobile phones with embedded Wi-Fi connectivity continued to experience growth in 2009 despite total handset shipment declines, according to the latest market study by In-Stat.

While the 2009 Wi-Fi mobile handset growth rate of more than 20 percent was significantly slower than the 2008, In-Stat still expects that 2010 will see resumed strength with units exceeding 180 million.

While the majority of current Wi-Fi enabled handsets are smartphones, feature phone manufacturers are also beginning to incorporate this feature -- providing a double stimulus for Wi-Fi handset growth.

"There are three primary zones of Wi-Fi handset usage," says Frank Dickson, In-Stat analyst. "At home, at the office and on the go. In the home, while broadband penetration has increased significantly over the past several years, so too has Wi-Fi home network penetration."

Enterprise smartphones will continue evolving to leverage VoIP's potential. On the go, consumers are increasingly leveraging Wi-Fi enabled handsets. Mainstream VoIP Apps, such as Skpe mobile, are now being accepted by mobile service providers -- as they overcome their revenue cannibalization fears.

I believe that when Google re-introduces the free Gizmo5 software-phone application, or another VoIP App for Android mobiles, we should see additional mainstream market uptake.

In-Stat's market study found the following:

- While the majority of respondents still access hotspots with a notebook PC, more than a quarter of the responses indicated accessing a public network with Wi-Fi enabled handsets.

- The potential for voice over Wi-Fi is gaining popularity, as cellular/Wi-Fi phones become more pervasive and consumer familiarity with VoIP increases.

- The Wi-Fi attach rate (percent of handsets with embedded Wi-Fi) will nearly triple from 2009's rate by 2013.

- While the enterprise was the original smartphone/Wi-Fi handset market, consumer adoption has also experienced strong growth, largely due to the success of Apple's iPhone.

Popular posts from this blog

How WLAN Transforms Industrial Automation

The industrial sector is on the eve of a wireless transformation, driven by an urgent demand for greater network capacity, reliability, and deterministic performance. Historically, manufacturers and mission-critical operations have relied on wired networks — favoring their predictability — because spectrum congestion in legacy 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands limited confidence in wireless for operational technology (OT) environments. However, with the introduction and rapid adoption of the 6GHz spectrum, compounded by significant advances in Wi-Fi standards, industrial facilities are now poised to embrace wireless LANs as the backbone for automation and digital innovation. Industrial WLAN Market Development Recent research from ABI Research forecasts that over 70 percent of industrial-grade wireless LAN access points (WLAN APs) shipped in 2030 will support the 6GHz band. This is a leap from 2 percent in 2023, highlighting a rapid and profound technological shift. The market for ruggedized indust...