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A set of specifications for wireless
communications. Bluetooth, named after a king who united Danish provinces in
the 10th century, connects electronic devices such as mobile p c s
and telephones together across radio waves. Originally started by mobile
phone makers Ericsson and Nokia, the Bluetooth consortium is now backed by
industry giants such as Intel, Ibm and Toshiba and over 1,000 other
members.
Bluetooth-compliant devices can communicate with each other
within a range of 10m or so (or up to100m if signals are boosted by a
powerful transmitter). In the short term, the biggest promise of this
technology is that it will free users from the need to carry around
cumbersome proprietary cables. Instead, devices need merely be within range
of each other's radio signals to communicate. Already, such devices as
keyboards incorporate Bluetooth, and the technology has support from
Microsoft, which now includes Bluetooth capabilities within the windows
XP Oprating system.
Although interest in Bluetooth has been strong, the
technology is struggling to establish itself. It seems unlikely that
original estimates of 1.4 billion Bluetooth-enabled devices worldwide by
2004 will be met. Gartner, a research company, estimated that 161m
Bluetooth-enabled devices would be sold in 2003, rising to 362m in 2004.
Some of the early concerns about Bluetooth;s viability are fading,
particularly in the light of the falling cost of the chips that make it
work. But concerns remain about interference with other wireless networking
technologies, the difficulty of configuration and security. Once seen as a
promising way to provide universal data access from single access points
(for example, enabling public access to the internet in railway stations or
airports), many now see wi- fi as the fastest and most reliable way
to connect to the internet across wireless connections. So Bluetooth's
principal use may be as a replacement for cables rather than as the
pervasive digital glue that will bind together electronics devices of all
kinds. Likely areas of growth for Bluetooth are mobile phones, which can be
equipped with hands-free Bluetooth headsets, and pdas, which can use
Bluetooth connections with mobile phones to connect to the internet. |
