Handsets reach Wi-Fi tipping point

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Handsets reach Wi-Fi tipping point

By MATT LEWIS

Published: 27 August, 2009

READ MORE: Metrics | Handset | Wi-Fi

In February this year, ABI Research found that dual-mode cellular/Wi-Fi handset shipments were set to double between 2008 and 2010. With the latter date fast approaching, the research firm has now confirmed we're on track to see 144 million handsets shipped this year and predicts a similar growth pattern will hold true - or even accelerate - for the period 2009-2011.

A powerful driving force behind this is almost certainly the continued innovation in Wi-Fi semiconductor technology and better integration of connection management within the device user interface. Early dual-mode phones suffer unimpressive connection speeds, embarrassing range and drained the battery so fast that standby times might well have been measured in milliseconds to produce a respectable looking number. Today, tightly integrated chips which employ intelligent power saving and interference reduction techniques are the norm. More importantly, manufacturers have paid attention to how wi-fi connectivity is managed within the user interface, with handsets like the iPhone able to intelligently with no intervention required from the user.

ATT usage There's been another fundamental shift in the Wi-Fi paradigm. From its inception, Wi-Fi was always treated like an unwanted party guest by wireless operators - outward politeness but quiet irritation that they'd crashed your special event. Sure, carriers appreciated the performance advantages Wi-Fi offered over their cellular networks, but they suffered from nightmares about the cannibalization to their precious voice and data revenues if Wi-Fi was to become pervasive. But just like with handset semiconductor technology, so to have evolved the attitudes of carriers. While the hotspot phenomena was initially spearheaded by a plethora of overzealous upstarts around the world, some with secret fantasies of world domination, today it are the operators themselves who are largely in control having secured their own extensive hotspot networks, either organically or more often through acquisition.

With some control over hotspot networks, operators have been more comfortable exploiting the benefits of Wi-Fi more fully. As consumers' appetite for mobile data explodes, carriers able to shift traffic from their investment-heavy 3G network over to Wi-Fi are reaping rewards. This then sets up a sort of virtual circle with these enlightened carriers are now more inclined to specify Wi-Fi as a feature when booking orders with handset manufacturers.

Nothing demonstrates the benefits more than figures released just last week by AT&T revealing the evolution in connections to its Wi-Fi network over the past six quarters - see the table. While it's tricky to filter from this data how much is iPhone traffic, there is no prize for guessing that it's probably significant. The massive jump in connections seen in the last quarter (1Q 09 to 2Q 09), up almost 50%, gives credence to this - it is almost certainly due largely to the new auto-authentication feature in iPhone OS 3.0 which launched in June. This harps back to the innovation in usability mention previously.

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