14 DAY TRIAL // While WiFi phones could in fact completely replace regular mobile phones, users aren't that excited with this idea just yet. Respondents that participated in a survey regarding WiFi phones and communication devices had only a lukewarm response to the concept. Most of them were slightly interested in WiFi-only mobile phones while almost a quarter of them showed no interest at all.
"Overall survey results indicated that Wi-Fi is a desirable buddy technology to cellular," says Gemma Tedesco, In-Stat analyst. "The majority of respondents were interested in having a Wi-Fi communication device together with their cellular phones, albeit only if the Wi-Fi phone or communicator device is cheap."
Just like a cell phone, a WiFi handset can be used for making and receiving calls, text messages or voicemail. It can also be used for surfing the net and provides better data retrieval capabilities. A WiFi handset won't require any telephone lines, but only hotspots (that can be easily found all around cities) in order to connect to the Internet.
The study revealed that most respondents were quite satisfied with their current mobile phones and found that the current pricing for WiFi only phones is quite higher than what they are willing to pay for such a device.
And frankly, a cell phone is easy to use and understand as well as very common on the market. The WiFi phone technology, on the other hand, is still rather new and while it brings many benefits, it needs time in order to become widely accepted. However, WiFi phones are expected to become very popular in the following years with many users giving up their cell phones for WiFi handsets.