News

27 June 2006

 

Market for converged Wi-Fi/cellular handsets to exceed 132m devices by 2010

Wireless market analysts at In-Stat forecast that shipments of cellular handsets containing Wi-Fi will exceed 132 million devices by 2010.

"In the end, most US cellular carriers will embrace Wi-Fi in their handsets, as carriers know that if they don’t, other carriers will, and these carriers will likely steal away some of their customers," says Allen Nogee, In-Stat analyst.  “Combo handsets also offer carriers opportunities to provide services such as VoIP over Wi-Fi, lessening impact on their cellular data system.”

In-Stat’s research found that over 20 cellular handset models have been, or soon will be, released with embedded Wi-Fi access. Some cellular carriers are already planning to offer services that support voice calls over both cellular and Wi-Fi, and some Wi-Fi/cellular handsets are incorporating VoIP clients for services like Skype.

In-Stat’s The Road to Convergence: Wi-Fi/Cellular Handsets Get a Voice contains five-year forecasts for Wi-Fi/cellular handsets broken out by voice/data and consumer/business.

Visit: http://www.instat.com