This ZDNet article quotes analyts at Infonetics Research about how slowly WiFi phones are being deployed. In the article, it states, "Despite suggestions that 2004 would see mass take-up of Wi-Fi phones, analysts are now saying said that it will be 2009 before they become economically viable for the market as a whole"
Hmmm, a pessimistic view of a VoIP niche? Oh no, trashing my beloved VoIP! Which way should I go? Do I dispute the analysts or agree with them?
Well, to be honest, I agree with them. I can tell you why WiFi phones haven't taken off. WiFi phones by themelves are very "niche". That is, if WiFi phones are only "1 trick wonders" with just WiFi voice capability and no cellular wireless, 3G, etc. then WiFi phones are basically just a cordless phone that works over your WiFi local area network. There's no real advantage of a WiFi phone as compared to your typical 2.4Ghz cordless phone. In fact, a 2.4Ghz phone usually has a better range than a WiFi phone. There is one advantage I suppose and that's that you can carry the WiFi phone around to WiFi hotspots and make VoIP calls inexpensively. But who wants to carry around another phone device? Especially when you consider most people get a bucket of cell phones minutes that they have to use up anyway - they're prepaid monthly. Now a combo WiFi device would be a different story. A Pocket PC/WiFi/WiMAX/3G cell phone and this would make much more sense. It's one device to carry for one. Now, if you happen to be in a WiFi hotspot, the cell phone will use WiFi. If you aren't near WiFi, maybe it defaults to 3G. I'm sure the future smartphones and hybrid devices will let you specify the network precedence order.
No, the "1 trick wonder" WiFi phone is dead.. In fact, one of the pioneers of WiFi phones was Symbol with their NetVision WiFi phone, which was discontinued. More proof that WiFi phones by themselves are indeed too niche in my opinion for widespread adoption.
But I do have a caveat. In corporate America, most people use their wired desktop phone and do not have a wireless solution to be able to roam around the office and receive calls to their extension. However, there are some executives and other types of employees that always want to stay in touch, so they use proprietary wireless solutions that integrate with their PBX. For example, Rich Tehrani has been using Comdial's Scout wireless phone for years - before VoIP even existed. For people like that, certainly it does make sense to have a standardized WiFi phone rather than a proprietary wireless solution. For one, WiFi phones are less expensive, and secondly, if you have an IP-PBX, you simply turn on the WiFi phone, get assigned an IP address via DHCP and voila' you have plug and play cordless/wireless VoIP!
So the one-trick pony WiFi phone does have its place - just a smaller niche that some prognosticators would like.
Eric Lagerway has some similar thoughts in his SIPThat blog you should check out
WiFi VoIP
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WiFi VoIP TrackBack URL : http://blog.tmcnet.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1420
In a nutshell, wherever you have a fast enough Internet connection you can use VoIP. Read More
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Related Entries
- SimplyWiFi SIP Phone
- KIRK 2010
WiFiDECT VoIP phone
- IEEE standardizes 801.11r fast Wi-Fi roaming
- Microsoft develops Vi-Fi (Vehicle Wi-Fi). VoIP while driving baby!
- Congrats to Netgear - wins Top 10 Gadgets 2007 Award
- Vonage partners with Earthlink and becomes an ISP
- GN 9350 DECT 6.0 headset does PC, VoIP, and regular phone handsets
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I agree with your assessment about WiFi phones 100%.
I was one of the few that bought the Symbol NetVision WiFi phones and I only used it for a month before I got tired of carrying it around.
Good analysis Tom. We need dual mode phones with cellular and Wifi capabilities. Look for Skype to push this technology.
Actually I think that this is only sort of right... When the Wi-Fi phone simply supports Voice - then it is nothing more than an overkill replacement to a cordless phone - I agree. But when the VoIP phone supports advanced IP services - then the WiFi makes sense. I am using a VoIP phone in my home today over WiFi. This particular phone (in field trials today) lets me search Yellow Pages information, check the weather, movies, etc... A LOT faster and easier than I can on my small cell phone, without dealing with my office computer - the WiFi lets me use it in my Kitchen and Living Room. It's not meant to replace my cell phone - its meant to bring my home phone into the present century. Let's face it, while almost every breathing being seems to have a cell phone, more than 95% of homes haven't given up their fixed phone. It's here to stay and I think that VoIP & WiFi will finally make it very cool and useful...only time will tell.
Well said. I think over time, WiFi phones could replace cordless phones IF they have some neat features like you mention. Email access could be a great killer app – but the price has to be right as well. The general public isn’t going to pay $200 for a WiFi phone. Maybe $150.
BTW - which WiFi phone are you using?
What if instead of a WiFi phone, you had a device, like a BlackBerry, that enabled you to access all of your IP PBX features, as well as e-mail, web, directories, etc... anywhere you went on your campus? 3Com and Nortel announced partnerships with Research in Motion this week that enable just that. You can read a bit about it here (http://voip-blog.tmcnet.com/blog/greg-galitzine/) or you can visit the RIM Web site at www.rim.com
Tom, I didn't want to Advertise on your Blog, but since you asked, I am with the company, Commoca, that is providing the phone and content service. At this link you can see what was recently announced by Bridgeport networks...
http://www.bridgeport-networks.com/news-events/release_020905.html w/r to Commoca.
A portion of the technology will be shown at 3GSM World Congress next week performing handoffs between the cellular network and the VoIP phone (not WiFi at the show).
Hi Guys -- Hope some of you will be at CeBIT next week. I'll be at the VoIP Summit on March 14. I'm looking for a low-cost WiFi mobile phone that we can bring to market for less than US$100. VoIP users in developing nations need a low-cost single-band phone to use at free hotspots. -- Mirian
Of the 6100 exhibitors at CeBIT this year in Hannover, we spoke with 8 or 10 companies working on dual-mode wifi/cellular phones. The chipset/DSP/wifi-radio integration is an ongoing development at the moment; it will solve the power consumption issues and bring MPEG processing on the board.
With these improvements, the dual-mode wifi phone will offer more robust features, but with a price. The standard wifi-only handset is still hovering around US$200, however several manufacturers at CeBIT were promoting a $150 phone with very nice firmware. The camera option added about $100, and provided very nice SIP/Video calling.
The coolest product launched at CeBIT(aside from the $20 cigarette lighter MP3 players) was the WiFi SIP/Video Phone. It is a full-featured open standards IP/PBX desk phone with integrated camera and 7-inch touch-sensitive flat panel display.
-- Mirian
Curious --- What's the manufacturer of this WiFi SIP videophone?
Tom -- I looked at 2 different wifi videophone products; one from a supplier in TPE and one from SEL. Both phones spoke SIP, but the Korean device also supported IAX. The firmware needed some additional baking on both. They are in low-volume production and the streetprice is around $400.
There were several other suppliers showing LAN-only IP/SIP videophones, including ZyXEL, the maker of the popular Pulver wifon.
In the Linux Parc in Hall 6 at CeBIT, a WiFi PDA was on display. It was refreshing to see a $250 PDA alternative to WinCE or Palm. There were atleast 5 open development SIP clients already available for the device.
-- Mirian
Hi...
I'm searching information about of VoIP, exactly about how to connect a PocketPc Terminal with Wifi to un PBX for VoIP Extension.
Filein -- If you are running an Asterisk, it is fairly simply to configure the SIP client on the PocketPC device to ring as an extension on your PBX. Take a look at voip-info.org for technical information about setting this up. If you need more help, please feel free to send me an email.
thanks for your comments, we are beginning to configure a pbx with asterisk, I hope this work...
greetings from Mexico...
Filein Rommel
amuziei@yahoo.com good day sir.
how are youy doping over there
i will like to inquire on how you sell your wifi phones cos i wanna buy from u tell me details on how i can buy from you your country too
email me if you are interested in working on a project that will bring wifi and voip together for the masses withing the next 3 years. i'm just started up, but i'm looking at having corporate funding and being off the ground by christmas.
I need the WiFi SIP videophone introduction!
who can give me?
Hello guys
We will lunch soon the Yackie WiFi phone in USA, keep in touch
regards
We are now stocking Wifi phones and are about to launch the Skype Wifi phone. If you are interested in one please visit our site. http://www.i-voip.co.uk