Dual mode GSM/WiFi phone

If 2004 was the year of the cameraphone, and 2005 the year of the musicphone, I hope 2006 will be the year of the dual-mode VoIP phones. I'm sure this will drive the adoption of VoIP technology among people to new heights. Although it seems that most models will only offer WiFi as a means to connect to your provider, it's definitely a start.

To increase adoption even further I would like to see these phones supporting UMTS as well, as it is being rolled out in most European countries (or has been, by now). This will allow you to make your VoIP calls anywhere, instead of having to look for a WiFi hotspot first and stay tethered during your call. It will be interesting to see what operators will try to do to compete with these offerings, or much rather block them straight away.

Anyway, it looks like Taiwanese ODM Winston NeWeb Corp is demonstrating such a phone at the CES in Las Vegas. They are purportedly running Linux based Trolltech's Qtopia Phone Edition, which I mentioned earlier. That is definitely a good thing, now if we would only see some mainstream manufacturers picking this system up, we're in for some good things in 2006. Best wishes!