If reports are true, Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Verizon are on tap this fall to release a new version of the BlackBerry Storm sporting Wi-Fi connectivity, a feature fueling smartphone growth and increasingly relied upon to bypass expensive data plan fees used for mobile multimedia.

Both Verizon Wireless and RIM declined to comment on a report by SlashGear that the "Storm 2" would be getting a Wi-Fi makeover. Still, a move to improve on the original Storm, which lacked Wi-Fi, could prove lucrative if current trends continue.

For instance, a recent report by ABI Research on behalf of the Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry association that includes RIM, shows consumers view Wi-Fi as a "must-have" feature for mobile handsets.

Ed Figueroa, director of the alliance, told InternetNews.com that "seventy-seven percent of the mobile phone users out there say they want Wi-Fi on their next handset, and that three-fourths of the people who have Wi-Fi now on their smartphones use it regularly."

He added that Wi-Fi is fueling smartphone growth, as users of phones with the feature say they like their phone twice as much as those who have phones without Wi-Fi.

That might be one reason that the number of smartphones with Wi-Fi will increase to 90 percent by 2014, up from the 44 percent of smartphones that currently have the feature, according to ABI.

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