D-Link Intros V-Click Dual-Mode Handset

Mae : Wireless Mobility Blog
Mae
| News and views on everything wireless and mobile, from WiFi and WiMAX to 3G and fixed-mobile convergence (FMC).

D-Link Intros V-Click Dual-Mode Handset

There’s been talk for quite some time about fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) and dual-mode handsets. Recently the potential of this new technology has finally begun to see the light of day in actual handsets and services available to consumers.

A case in point is D-Link’s introduction this week of a new, dual-mode (3G cellular/WiFi) handset: the V-Click. On the phone’s product page, D-Link explains users will be able to insert a SIM Smartcard or chip from their cellular provider into the handset to gain GSM access; a button allows users to switch back and forth from cellular to WiFi modes. V-Click is set to ship during the first quarter of 2007.

In a recent blog post, TMCnet’s Tom Keating notes that the availability of dual-mode handsets is moving quite slowly. Indeed, after some searching around this morning the only other product I can truly say compares to V-Click is Paragon Wireless’ hip-2200, announced last month.

Now the question remains who will be interested in buying dual-mode phones. A recent Internet Telephony Magazine article by Ilkka Pouttu, VP of Sales and Marketing at Paragon Wireless, indicates that dual-mode handsets may be of particular interest for companies outfitting their employees with mobile devices and services.

“In the past, the cost of providing cellular services has often been difficult to predict or control, but with a mobile workforce, corporate decision makers, mobile workers, and managers have had little choice in the matter,” Pouttu notes. “VoIP generally, and Dual Mode handsets in particular, offer organizations a significant opportunity to predict and control the cost of their mobile communications for their employees.”

What do you think?