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August 27, 2009

WiFi Phone Shipment Rate Doubling Every Two Years: Report

By Marisa Torrieri, TMCnet Editor

The market for WiFi (News - Alert)-enabled handsets is still going strong, and shipments of these phones are expected to continue to double every two years.



 
ABI Research this week confirmed an earlier report put out in February, which called for WiFi handset shipments to double between 2008 and 2010. This pattern is expected to continue the time period 2009 to 2011.
 
By the end of this year, 144 million handsets will ship, and in 2010, more than 300 million will ship, according to ABI.
 
As the exclusive provider of the iPhone, AT&T (News - Alert) Wireless is going strong; as Verizon Wireless embraces WiFi, the carrier is expected to become more competitive.  
 
Verizon (News - Alert) Wireless didn’t “jump into the pool first,” ABI analyst Michael Morgan told TMC. “They let the other guys do it first, and then make sure it’s road-tested. Today, consumers are demanding this, so Verizon has to warm up to WiFi if they want improved customer experience.”
 
Also, Morgan says we should expect T-Mobile, which uses unlicensed mobile access technology to carry voice over WiFi and then route it back into the core cellular network, to become more prevalent in the mobile WiFi marketplace. “UMA lets you bring WiFi back into the carrier network, so you can bill for it,” Morgan says. “T-Mobile doesn’t have landline assets at their company. But they used a combination of WiFi and UMA, which gave them an addressable market they couldn’t reach before.”
 
But even with WiFi and other wireless-data technology on the way, dropped calls and other challenges are also inevitable, Ari Rabban, CEO of Phone.com (News - Alert), who’s speaking on ITEXPO West – held Sept. 1-3 in Los Angeles – told TMC CEO Rich Tehrani in a one-on-one pre-show interview.

“Whether WiFi or not, improved wireless services are inevitable. Perhaps we should not say improved quality (at least not in the United States) because I believe we will still suffer from dropped calls because of bad coverage despite all the great commercials. As for WiFi itself, if we define WiFi the way it is today then it will be limited to ‘fixed mobile’ or ‘cordless’ equivalent,” said Rabban. “It is not the solution for roaming and hand offs.”
 
 
Learn more about WiFi at ITEXPO West — the biggest and most comprehensive IP communications event of the year. ITEXPO (News - Alert) West will take place in Los Angeles, Sept. 1 to 3, 2009, featuring three valuable days of exhibits, conferences, and networking opportunities you can’t afford to miss. Don’t wait. Register now.

Follow ITEXPO on Twitter: twitter.com/itexpo

Marisa Torrieri is a TMCnet Editor. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Michael Dinan


 







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