Apple could create a "killer converged entertainment device" by adding Wi-Fi functionality to its iPod digital media players that could attract 100 million users by 2011, an analyst firm claimed today.


A new study from ON World suggests that consumer devices such as iPods with integrated Wi-Fi and VoIP will become the preferred way of accessing internet services in the future. Over the next five years, the PC industry is expected to drive the consumer mobile VoIP market with its growing "real-time internet" telecoms network of services, devices and infrastructure.

"The PC industry has found an ideal services model and this is the 'real-time internet'," said Mareca Hatler, director of research at ON World.

"Services such as VoIP, video, music, radio, news and instant messaging, coupled with mobile devices such as a Wi-Fi enabled iPod and the ubiquity of broadband, will result in 100 million consumer mobile VoIP users in 2011."

The PC industry will ship more than twice as many mobile VoIP devices per year as the telecoms industry in 2011, the ON World study estimated.

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