Wi-Fi cell phones bound for success

According to the marketing research firm In-Stat, Wi-Fi/Cellular handsets will make a big splash. By 2010, shipments of cellular handsets containing Wi-Fi will exceed 132 million devices, the high-tech market research firm says. Carriers have been reluctant to offer Wi-Fi-capable handsets for several reasons, but Wi-Fi has spread so fast that carriers will not be able to resist much longer.

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• More than 20 cellular handset models now have, or will soon be, released with embedded Wi-Fi access.
• A few cellular carriers are 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.
• It had been assumed that business customers would be first to adopt Wi-Fi/Cellular handsets, but in fact consumers are likely to be more receptive to early adoption of the technology.