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
android apple asterisk at&t blackberry cell phone cisco dell digium e911 facebook fcc google google talk gps im ip-pbx ipad iphone ipod itexpo ITEXPO lync microsoft mobile phone open source outage phone review sip skype sony unified communications verizon video video conferencing voip vonage wireless xbox 360
- Apple (280)
- Bittorrent (2)
- Call Center and CRM (48)
- Computer Hardware (183)
- Computer Software (71)
- Gadgets (650)
- Google (225)
- Home Entertainment (263)
- Internet (173)
- Linux (111)
- Microsoft (376)
- MovableType (48)
- News (187)
- Personal and Humor (118)
- Politics (9)
- Reviews (246)
- Security (2)
- Social Networking (42)
- Sports/Outdoor Technology (9)
- Tablets (32)
- Technology and Science (355)
- Unified Communications (471)
- VoIP (2285)
- Wireless (584)
- p2p (20)
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
Featured Videos