More thoughts on WiFi enabled phones

Wed, 28 May 2003 00:28:00 -0400
/technology

I’ll keep banging the drum because the disruptive potential of WiFi/GSM phones is huge and I’m yearning for one.

They are coming:

Mayhew-Begg said that by the end of the year, the first Nokia phone with WiFi as well as GSM would be launched.

Hughes said that the fears of power consumption being high on WiFi phones were unjustified. “My understanding is that the only difference in power consumption between WiFi and Bluetooth is the range. So with power control added to WiFi, you can get similar power consumption.”

… fingers crossed.

Voice over IP over WiFi has early adoptors outside of businesses. (Apple co-founder) Woz recently moved house just to get a GSM signal. Others would adopt for a cheap-open (if patchy) 3G equivalent, with universal remote control and point of presence as co-motivators.

Tariff avoidance is the mass-market adoption motivator and is powerfully viral (“You have unlimited texting and landline calls from here, work and college?! How?!”). It should also drive home WiFi/broadband adoption and public hotspot demand. The market for Hotspot in a Box products should be massive.

Winners:

WiFi vendors

Mobile phone manufacturers

Broadband providers

VoIP providers

Sociable people

Losers:

GSM network providers

3G license holders

Traditional landline providers

Just another TelCo misery story.