Interviews with Digital Media Thought Leaders

Will iPod Touch Stimulate Demand for Ubiquitous WiFi? (Part 2 of 2)

Podcast Video | Posted by Phil Leigh on September 13, 2007

Could the new WiFi enabled iPod Touch induce a trend toward abundant WiFi connectivity? If you would like to learn about the market opportunity for municipal wireless networks from a company that builds and operates them, this interview is for you. (Part 2 of 2).

Our guest today is Lou Pelosi who is the Vice President of Marketing at MetroFi. Earlier this summer Apple began selling the iPhone and even more recently introduced the iPod Touch which is a WiFi enabled iPod. Essentially the iPod Touch has everything the iPhone does, except connectivity to the cellular network. Thus, it is capable of Web Browsing and using Internet applications. One such application is a wireless iTunes Music Store that lets users download purchased songs directly to their iPod Touch at selected WiFi Hot Spots.

In our analysis, the iPod Touch is likely to stimulate other companies to try and manufacture comparable units that similarly permit popular applications to be run over the wireless Internet. Significantly one such application (not available on iPod Touch) might be Skype. Once Skype is operable on a Web-Browsing WiFi device, VoIP telephone calls become merely one application among the many available to the owner. Thus, WiFi will enable such devices to by-pass the cellular system.

Such an eventuality may lead to huge latent demand for ubiquitous WiFi access. While it’s a promise that you might have heard before, the difference is that iPod Touch is likely to become a mass market WiFi device. As such it may hasten a dawning-of-awareness about the potential utility of abundant WiFi access.

It is thought that municipalities are discovering important economic reasons to build-out WiFi networks and thereby provide such ubiquity of connectivity. You can learn more bout those reasons by watching today’s interview.

Length: This video interview is covered in about 11 minutes.