I see that the debate between Femtocells and WiFi in the home rages on (http://gigaom.com/2009/11/02/who-needs-femtocells-if-we-have-wi-fi/) The basic argument against Femto's is that they are just offloading traffic from the carriers network and WiFi can do this just as easily. To me, this is more than just offloading networks or having a better solution for voice than WiFi, this is about owning the gateway in the home. As homes become wireless hubs for everything from energy monitoring/control to remote healthcare, there will be an enourmous opportunity to aggregate all of this wireless traffic inlcuding the normal voice/data traffic. M2M traffic could become more prevalent than person-to-person traffic in the home over the next 5 years. Some of this traffic will lend itself to 4G networks moreso than WiFi, especially for remote objects that aren't on local sensor nets (like Zigbee).
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The recent announcement by China Unicom that they will offer iPhones in China (http://wirelessweek.com/News/2009/08/China-to-Get-iPhone/) is evidence of the surging demand for smartphones among the masses. Unfortunately, the Chinese government requires them to disable the WiFi capability on the device which will significantly limit some of it's capabilities. Never-the-less, the iPhone coupled with a growing middle-class with an appetite for entertainment could create a whole new wireless economy and social fabric in China. Depending on how the app-store model takes root, there could be a new wave of Chinese entrepreneurs launcing apps to address everything from games to business productivity. Hopefully Unicom's network is ready for the Tsunami.
