Information from
Johnson Consulting

  1. What is "Bluetooth"?

  2. How could Bluetooth be used?

  3. Basic Bluetooth functions

  4. How does Bluetooth work?

  5. Establishing network connections

  6. What kind of traffic can Bluetooth handle?

  7. What about competing technologies?

  8. What about radiation; is it dangerous?

  9. What is Bluetooth´s growth potential?

  10. What is Bluetooth´s prestanda?

  11. What about Bluetooth´s security?

  12. Bluetooth definitions

  13. How networks are formed and controlled

  14. What´s the advantage of frequency-hopping?

  15. How timeslots are used

Bluetooth - An Overview

What is Bluetooth´s growth potential?

With headings such as "The Coronation of King Bluetooth?", the GartnerGroup predict that in year 2004, 40 % of all electronic trading will be done using handheld terminals. And the wireless technique will be very important, in order for the e-trading to take off. This area is perfectly suited for Bluetooth, and Bluetooth will in all probability be the dominating technique for wireless communication for handheld terminals. In the EU-countries, handheld terminals are expected to have 75% of the market. USA lags somewhat behind when it comes to wireless datacommunication and the use of handheld terminals.

Not much will happen with Bluetooth, however, until mid-2000, when the first generation of devices becomes available.

The Compliance Issue

Compliance between wireless devices is an essential tenet of the Bluetooth technology. In theory, a user with a Bluetooth radio device manufactured by one company should be able to link to another device manufactured by another supplier. Without this level of connectivity, it would (of course) be impossible for a corporate user to buy Bluetooth equipment that would work with other Bluetooth equipment.

Apart from this; if prices can be kept on a competitive level, we will soon very likely see a rapid switchover from wire-connected to wireless appendages to new computers, both at the workplace and in the home. The mobility and ability to dynamic reconfiguration "on the go" between units are attributes that will be widely appreciated.

What equipment is available today on the market? The members of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group" provide more or less accurate information about their respective products on their websites. As of this writing, there are no consumer products available yet.

NEC has, for instance, developed a prototype notebook computer that could be the first to use the Bluetooth wireless data technology. NEC displayed a prototype of the notebook at CeBIT in February 2000. It features National Semiconductor's chips.

For further info about products, visit Ericsson´s Bluetooth website.

Production-Snags

The manufacturing market for Bluetooth will focus on the sale of embedded chips for various products, with analysts Frost & Sullivan predicting a $700 million market by 2006. Intel, which is involved in chip production, estimates each Bluetooth chip will cost laptop manufacturers around $30. Such a chip would allow users to have the much touted "killer applications" of wireless communications between a laptop and a mobile phone for the easy delivery of data.

However, Apple has already said it isn't interested in adopting Bluetooth for its laptops, and Bluetooth special interest group's leading members can't promise any Bluetooth-enabled phones for up to 12 months. Nokia originally promised a laptop-to-phone Bluetooth solution by the end of 1999.

 Ericsson and its chip partners - including Philips-owned VLSI - had promised commercial products by Christmas 1999. But Ericsson´s first product - a headset which allows a user to communicate with a mobile phone - is six months behind schedule, and won't appear until summer 2000. And the Ericsson Bluetooth phones probably won't appear until 2001. And likewise with the Nokia Bluetooth phones.

TDK Systems Europe blames the commercial delay on bad marketing. They maintain that "the marketing people got hold of Bluetooth far too soon, and some chip makers were too bullish about availability. Promises were being made before the first Bluetooth standard was even finalised."

Copyright © 2001, Johnson Consulting
Last Updated: 2004-04-17
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