Are You Interested In WiFi Access From Your Smartphone

[Mike Temporale]

Last December, Jason posted a link to a Tech World article that talked about how WiFi is coming to Smartphones (http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4611). It's been over 8 months since that post, and there is still no sign of WiFi support for your Windows Mobile for Smartphones device.

This is something that I would love to see happen. I use my Pocket PC for casual browsing and checking email while I'm at home, work, or a friends house. I don't see the point in paying the expensive data rates for GPRS when I can do this with my Pocket PC and WiFi for free. However, if I could get WiFi on my Smartphone, I might start leaving my Pocket PC behind more often. What makes this all the more frustrating, is the latest crop of Smartphones due out on the market shortly, have ignored this option. :(

Here's my question for all of you. Would you be interested in having WiFi (WLAN) access (SDIO-based or built-in) from your Smartphone?

[possmann]

hopefully someone will develop a miniSD wifi card...

Most likely route will be building 802.11x capabilty into the phone itself - but the question would be how to limit that use to only data browsing... otherwise the carriers could loose voice revenue. IF I was in a place taht had wifi access I am just use my wifi enabled phone and some sort of voice over ip product to talk with people rather than actually using the carrier voice service (minutes).

Hardware is moving faster than what the carriers like as with an OS like the smartphone I can now create my own ring toces from mp3(wma) files (lost revenue) and my own wallpaper (more last revenue) instead of having to pay the carrier for those features. Personally I find this great but I'm sure that the carriers really don't like loosing out on that revenue stream.

Kinda goes back to my multiple rants of moving the carriers to more of a cable service or ISP service model - I buy the hardware that meets the requirements of their network and I buy the minutes (or bandwidth) I want from that carrier and that is all I pay to the carrier.

sorry - a bit off topic. I'd love to see the WIFI capablity for the smartphone in an expansion card...

[Kris Kumar]

Hardware is moving faster than what the carriers like as with an OS like the smartphone I can now create my own ring toces from mp3(wma) files (lost revenue) and my own wallpaper (more last revenue) instead of having to pay the carrier for those features. Personally I find this great but I'm sure that the carriers really don't like loosing out on that revenue stream.

Very true....hopefully carriers will not try to use brute force to deflate the winds of change!

The only company that is smart enough to have foreseen this is T-Mobile. They have decent Hot Spot coverage. And with WiFi enabled Smartphones they can be assured to get revenue not only from the GSM usage but also from the WiFi usage. And I like the fact that they have a unified bill.

[ricksfiona]

If you had WiFi included with the phone, why couldn't you have a VOIP phone? Wouldn't it be cool that within your phone book you not only had the phone number of your friend's cell phone, but their VOIP address as well?

The softwware can choose the cheapest method to reach your friend and if both phones had this 'chooser' software, it will automatically switch you to cell service from WiFi when you got out range.

Why couldn't Skype have software that installs on these things?

[Mike Temporale]

Why couldn't Skype have software that installs on these things?

The biggest reason is the current lack of WiFi support for the Smartphone platform. :cry:

[Skiwhack]

I love my Toshiba e740 with WiFi and was excited to see that Nextel will be coming out with the i930 smartphone late 2004 but hopes and dreams deflated when I learned that it wont have stylus based input like the PDA.

The only smartphones that I know of with true PDA functionality are the Treo 600 for Verizon and the Kyocera 7135 but they both rely on Palm OS which I've always had issues with as well as the cost of service is stupid.

If Morotola were to develop a smartphone with Windows Pocket PC, Stylus input, IR, iDen and WiFi I'd pay up to $500 if I could ditch the PDA.

Ski

[Mike Temporale]

If Morotola were to develop a smartphone with Windows Pocket PC, Stylus input, IR, iDen and WiFi I'd pay up to $500 if I could ditch the PDA.

Ski

That's called a Pocket PC Phone Edition, and you might want to look into the Motorola MPx. :)

[wardy]

hopefully someone will develop a miniSD wifi card...

Highly unlikely I think, with the SDIO cards being the size they are they had to extend outwards the card to fit the aeriel into it, with miniSD thats unlikely to be possible and most phones have the miniSD card under the battery making it shielded from any radio reception :(

But yes I would love to have one of those Sandisk Wi-Fi +256Mb SDIO cards to work with my phone, then you could also access t'internet from hotspots like train stations too!