Mobile Phone manufacturers are rushing nervously to their R&D departments back and forward wondering if they have got it right before releasing or updating their latest Wi-Fi phone.

The Scenario

Mobile telephony leaders such Motorola are faced with networking leaders such as Cisco Systems, communication systems leader Avaya and Wi-Fi hardware manufacturers SpectraLink in gaining technological advantage in this fertile, yet unpredictable market segment.?
Motorola's "WLAN Seamless Mobility Solutions" head of marketing Jane Glover, told the Wi-Fi Technology Forum "Motorola is currently working on an exciting dual system, cellular/Wi-Fi phone that will be at the heart of our Seamless Mobility converged communications solution". She also went on to say "The phone is still in the development process and not yet ready to be sent out for testing/review". Will Cisco Systems have something to worry about here!

While Cisco Systems and Avaya have an unshakeable track record, the first in networking solutions and the latter in communication systems, one would expect them to gain a "comparable advantage" over their rivals. However, this is not a forgone conclusion in the mobile telephony field. Shouldn't a company like Motorola have the upper hand, and would SpectraLink have a claim as a respected Wi-Fi hardware manufacturer.
The unpredictability is in the position this new Wi-Fi phones will hold, their intended use as well as their target customers and users. Anyone will be willing to stick his or her neck out and favor a mobile handsets manufacturer, the reasoning behind that would be the common sense market positioning, the primary position of the new Wi-Fi Phone handsets is after all just a mobile phone.?
I can not help but always remember the XEROX story in the 1980s, entering the PC market with an image of a Photocopier leader, which was a disaster. Will the same scenario be repeated here, I surely hope IBM or Compaq would not join the chase, as again, it'll be hard to swallow story; an IBM mobile phone?

The Solution

Combining both wireless data and voice communications in a little nifty handset will surely be an attractive solution to many professionals, public sector employees as well as personal users. The Wi-Fi phone is generally meant for electronic communication users who are always in a rush, drifting in and out of range of their intranet or internet connection is solved by filling the gap using their Wi-Fi phone, they can now continue from where they left of. The gap is filled by hooking up automatically to their network through access points and Wi-Fi hotspots, apparently with little or no cost involved.?
With the ever mushrooming of Wi-Fi public access points or hotspots worldwide and the improvement in home gateways, access points, routers and related Wi-Fi hardware, it is expected that the RF signal range will improve tremendously, currently expected at between 300-500 feet possibly a lot more for the new handsets.

The Wi-Fi phone may be thought of as a niche product, that may be true in the sense that Wi-Fi itself is an infant technology, its maturity one may think would be a long way. The real picture is quite different here, Wi-Fi technology is meant and expected to explode in the next few months. When you look at the foundations of this technology, the companies that are embracing it, governments initiatives and legislations worldwide and many more other reasons which will prove otherwise.

The Review


The Wi-Fi Technology Forum is awaiting the latest Wi-Fi Phone units for testing and benchmarking for our review from Cisco Systems, Motorola, SpectraLink, Avaya and others. Our Wi-Fi phone review will feature soon in our news column as well as in the reviews section.