Mobile application users expected to quadruple in five years

Or 32% growth per year. And apparently Android will beat iPhone... That's according to Instat and reported here.

Ha! Blackberry Storm, no WiFi?

It came as a surprise to me: Blackberry's much advertised touchscreen phone has no WiFi. CNET claims that this is because Verizon is afraid of losing revenues due to data traffic moving to WiFi.

Will phone carriers follow Verizon's approach of trying to squash WiFi? Or will they embrace it like T-Mobile is doing?

Time will tell.

Companies bringing WiFi to everything

My friend Simon Barber pointed me to the following companies that focus on bringing WiFi connectivity to all kinds of devices:

http://www.gainspan.com/ (Sensor focus)
http://www.g2microsystems.com/ (Sensor & PAN focus)
http://www.nanoradio.com/ (PAN focus)
http://www.redpinesignals.com/ (Embedded / Sensor focus)
http://www.zerogwireless.com/ (Sensor networks)

I'll keep an eye on them...

iphone 3.0 notifications... will it work over WiFi?

Apple unveiled today iPhone OS 3.0. One of the long awaited features was the Notifications API. But will it work over any local area network or it will require Internet connectivity? The beta release only allowed Apple servers to trigger notifications. Apparently the new release has been completely rearchitected. Let's see...

Another interesting feature is the peer-to-peer connectivity. It relies on Bluetooth, not WiFi, so expect a very short range (10m/32ft).

Your phone's WiFi is not just a big pipe to the Internet!

I'll use this blog as a scrapbook to track how WiFi technology is used on phones. My impression is that cellphone makers initially put WiFi chips on phones just to provide a high-bandwidth connection to the Internet. At the time they did not realize the huge potential that this technology has for connecting your phone to other devices on a local network. WiFi (as opposed to Bluetooth) can be used to connect to all sorts of devices on an IP network, from printers to your toaster. I'm calling this local network WiFi enabled devices around a phone a wifonet, hence the title of this blog.

In this blog I will monitor news, products and ideas that unleash the WiFi promise on cellphones.