Smartphones: Wi-Fi or not Wi-Fi, that is the question

Stephen Withers
Monday, 13 July 2009 04:53

Opinion and Analysis

I noticed a curious juxtaposition in the news: one carrier has decided it will only sell smartphones that feature Wi-Fi, while a notable handset provider may drop Wi-Fi in order to enter a big market.

Revealing plans to release a Wi-Fi enabled version of the BlackBerry Tour during 2010, Sprint Nextel director of business product marketing Jeff Clemow restated the company's decision to require Wi-Fi support in the smartphones it sells.

"Sprint is embracing WiFi in all its major devices going forward," he told Fierce Wireless.

(Clemow explained that as far as the Tour was concerned, "Speed to market ... outweighed the desire to wait for WiFi.")

There are good reasons for wanting Wi-Fi on a smartphone. Not least is that unless you carrier provides an affordable 'illuminated data' plan, it's usually cheaper to use Wi-Fi when you're at home or in the office, or - subject to security issues - when you're in range of a free hotspot in a hotel, cafe or similar location.

Another is speed. Depending on your carrier, network congestion, and the speed of the Internet connection behind the Wi-Fi router, there's a good chance that WLAN will outperform wireless broadband.

So it seems strange to read that the company behind one of the most popular smartphones is prepared to drop Wi-Fi in order to enter a big market.

According to BusinessWeek, Apple has lodged an application with the Chinese government for a network access licence for an iPhone variant that lacks Wi-Fi capability.

BusinessWeek quotes Matt Mathison, an analyst at Wedge Partners, as saying "Apple was hellbent on having the iPhone be Wi-Fi enabled. The Chinese government has been just as adamant that it not be."

There has been speculation about whether this is due to the government's 'security' concerns or a determination to maximise the use of China Unicom's data service. State controlled China Unicom is the likely iPhone partner in China.

Wedge's prediction is that the iPhone will go on sale in China by February 2010.