WiFi-only phone: not a new idea so getting it past Apple's lawyers might be fun

We imagine the WiFi-only Galaxy Android yelling "Yah ne nah de nah nah" as it speeds past Apple's Cupertino HQ in a drive-by patent infringement. By Ian Scales.

With all sorts of things WiFi in the news (see - WiFi: the next Shaw Thing) it was hard not to highlight Samsung's latest offering - the Samsung Galaxy WiFi 3.6. So we haven't.

It's basically a Galaxy Smartphone without a SIM, it costs £149 for the 8GB model and £169 for the bigger 16GB version. It has a 1GHz OMAP processor, runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and will launch - in the UK at least - in early October.

In concept it's VERY much like the iPod Touch, so another patent infringement case might be on the way.

But in any case, it's not new to Samsung as we've already had the Galaxy S Wifi 4.0 at the beginning of this year, The numbers, by the way, don't delineate progressive technical advance, but screen size. With this Galaxy, Samsung is aiming down-market, straight into iPod Touch (3.5 inch screen) territory.

The important thing here is the price. On Amazon the cheapest iPod Touch 4 is on special at £164 while the equivalent 8Gbyte Galaxy model is going to cost £149, and no doubt less once the discounts start.

The Galaxy is everything a mobile phone should be minus the SIM and the wireless capability. That means it can do Skype voice and video calling (or similar) over WiFi and has access to Android Market for all the apps. As long as the user spends a lot of time within range of a WiFi hub it's hard to see why it wouldn't appeal to a cash-strapped teen (or its parent) as an alternative to yet another expensive mobile phone contract.

It also seems sensible for it to be sold with some sort of prepaid WiFi hotspot capability as well. Anyone who knows anything about that, let us know below.