Samsung Joins WiFi Mobile Handset Hunt

March 23, 2005 - source: BWCS

Korean handset vendor Samsung has become the latest manufacturer to unveil a WiFi/mobile phone. The company said it will begin marketing its SPH-M4300 WiFi/mobile phone later this month. To begin with, Samsung says it will restrict sales to its domestic market, before rolling it out into the wider world.

The phones will enable the user to access the internet via a WiFi connection, where available - in South Korea there are approximately 14,000 hotspots. The handset also boasts a 1.3-megapixel camera and a 2.8-inch LCD screen. It uses the Microsoft pocket pc operating system.

The Samsung model joins earlier versions from Nokia, Hewlett-Packard and iPaq which have all recently launched WiFi-enabled handsets. With such devices facing criticism that their keyboards and or screens are too small for lengthy web-browsing, some phone makers are already pushing voice-activity technology or even motion sensitive phones to overcome these limitations.