Every smartphone, from the iPhone to Android has Wi-Fi built-in to it. With its continued
use it seems certain that Wi-F-i is here to stay and the companies insist on selling phones with the feature. According to a report that ABI Research that was published this Tuesday, finding a phone without Wi-Fi will be difficult in the next few years.
The research finds that by 2014 about 90 percent of smartphones will have Wi-Fi. For instance, having Wi-Fi in the iPhone made it easier to browse and use and has reaffirmed its importance in the market. The big push for Wi-Fi is bandwidth-intensive multimedia applications including streaming video. According to AT&T, iphone users consume more data than any other smartphone users.
In order to cope with the increasing demand for internet and bandwidth, AT&T is encouraging its customers to use its Wi-Fi hotspots, about 20,000 of them for free hoping to reduce the strain on its already strained networks.
With 4G wireless networks hitting the market, Wi-Fi will still have a place because of its low cost and high speed advantages. ABI research says that about 10 smartphones have 802.11n certification, a new standard in Wi-Fi technology. The benefit of using 802.11n is that it offers up to five times the download speed of 802.11g and also doubles the range of a Wi-Fi spot to about 200 meters. It improves batter life since data is transmitted more efficiently with 802.11n technology.
It seems pretty clear that Wi-Fi will stay for a long time no matter how advanced the wireless technology gets, we love our little hot-spots!
[…] connections are typically pretty stable and with 802.11n, its range has increased considerably to 200 meters or more depending on the wifi gateway router […]