Wi-Fi Phone Market To Soar To $3.7 Billion By 2009: Report

The Wi-Fi phone market will double every year between now and 2009, and reach $3.7 billion by that year, according to a new report by Infonetics Research.

The report found that the worldwide Wi-Fi phone market increased 116% from 2004 to 2005 to reach $125.5 million, driven by enterprises and consumers deploying voice over wireless networks.

The report says that voice over wireless networks are being initially used primarily by enterprises rather than consumers, but that ultimately, it will become popular with consumers as well, as part of a complete a VoIP service bundled with broadband connections.

The report also found:

* SpectraLink is the overall leader in WiFi phone revenue, followed by Cisco and Motorola.* The total number of Wi-Fi phones grew 151% from 2004 to 2005 and will grow 182% between 2005 and 2006.

* 58% of WiFi phone revenue in 2005 came from single-mode WiFi VoIP handsets, and 42% from dual-mode handsets. By 2009, 91% of revenue will come from dual-mode handsets.

* 49% of dual-mode WiFi/cellular handset revenue came from Asia Pacific, 27% from North America, 22% from EMEA, and 2% from CALA in 2005.

"Single-mode WiFi VoIP handsets continue to penetrate the enterprise market, and with D-Link, Linksys, and NETGEAR all launching products, we expect increasing adoption in the consumer market, too," Richard Webb, directing wireless analyst with Infonetics Research, said in a statement.

He added, "But the real growth will come from dual-mode WiFi/cellular handsets. With the increased activity from both fixed and mobile operators to deliver dual-mode services to the mass market, often as part of a more far-reaching fixed-mobile convergence strategy, the long-term forecast for dual-mode WiFi/cellular handsets is strong, assuming these handsets come down in price to sub-100 dollars or euros."0