NYT: Welcome To WiLife

After PSFK banging on about the use of WiFi to make calls from mobile calls for an eternity it seems (check the Welcome To WiLife trend articles we’ve run), the NY Times now picks up on the concept of WiLife with an article entitled ‘The Wi-Fi in Your Handset’. They say:

What if, instead of burning up minutes on your cellphone plan, you could make free or cheap calls over the wireless networks that allow Internet access in many coffee shops, airports and homes? New phones coming on the market will allow just that. Instead of relying on standard cellphone networks, the phones will make use of the anarchic global patchwork of so-called Wi-Fi hotspots. Other models will be able to switch easily between the two modes.

Industry observer Om Malik says we still have a way to go though:

WiFi/VoIP combo today is where the MP3 players were before iPod came along. So unless something as gigantic as “iPod” happens, this is just another complex technology for consumers (not the early adopters) to decipher.

The Wi-Fi in Your Handset – New York Times
Om Malik