DESPITE A general slowdown in wireless handset shipments, mobile handsets with embedded Wi-Fi stayed strong in 2009 and could exceed 180 million units this year, reports In-Stat.
In its research report Wi-Fi in Mobile Phones: Dual Mode Becomes The In Thing, the market research company said that while the majority of current Wi-Fi enabled handsets are smart phones, feature phone manufacturers are also beginning to incorporate this feature which in turn will provide double stimulus for Wi-Fi handset growth.
“There are three primary zones of Wi-Fi handset usage – at home, at the office and on the go”, said In-Stat analyst Frank Dickson. “In the home, while broadband penetration has increased significantly over the past several years, so too has Wi-Fi penetration. This has enabled home networks that will rely on Wi-Fi handsets for voice and to share information with other devices, such as TVs. In the office, enterprise smart phones will continue evolving to leverage VoIP’s potential, and on the go, consumers are increasingly leveraging Wi-Fi enabled handsets as they become more educated about hotspots.”
In-Stat research also found the following:
– While the majority of respondents from In-Stat’s recent survey still access hotspots with a notebook, 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 smart phone/Wi-Fi handset market, consumer adoption has also experienced strong growth, largely due to the success of Apple’s iPhone in the consumer market.
