Nokia announces sales growth as WiFi handset sales boom

Accelerating sales of dual mode GSM/WiFi enabled mobile phones suggest that customers are satisfied that battery life and reliability are up to scratch, though there are no statistics to suggest how many people are actually using them to access data services.

A report published by research company Infonetics yesterday [Wednesday] concludes that all WiFi enabled phone sales worldwide were worth $535m, up 327 per cent from 2005, though the figure includes both dual mode GSM/WiFi devices and single mode WiFi only mobiles like those manufactured by Cisco and Spectralink.

Though starting from a small base, the fastest growing segment in the market is the dual-mode GSM/WiFi phone that provides access to voice and data services via wireless Lans (WLANs) and cellular networks, according to Infonetics. The research firm is predicting a five-year compound annual growth rate of 198% between 2006 and 2010 for this category of device.

"The appeal of mobile, wireless LAN, and VoIP solutions that support voice and data services across enterprise, public, and home networks is driving WiFi phone adoption, especially in dual-mode WiFi/cellular handsets." said Richard Webb, directing analyst for wireless at Infonetics Research in a statement.

The figures appear to be borne out by Nokia’s latest financial results, announced this week which indicate record sales of all mobile handsets leading to 20 per cent sales growth in 2006 over the previous year.

The handset maker did not specifically break out WiFi enabled phones as part of that figure, but stated that sales of ‘converged devices’ in the fourth quarter grew to 1.1 million units, up from 9.3m the year before.

Infonetics puts Samsung as the leader in dual-mode WiFi/cellular handset revenue market share, with Nokia second.