Bluetooth was heralded as yet another revolutionary technology that was going to change our lives forever by eliminating all wires and enabling wireless connectivity for PDAs, cellphones, MP3 players, digital cameras, and an endless list of other digital devices.
Not so long ago, everyone was talking about the promise of Bluetooth and vying to have the latest personal device using the technology, but that all seemed to lose momentum rather quickly.
Earlier this year device vendors were claiming a dramatic increase in the sale of Bluetooth products, saying the upswing was due to the need to communicate using multiple devices without having compatibility issues.
Well, no one wants to have compatibility issues, but personally I have yet to feel the need for a Bluetooth communication device. Not even my love of gadgets could compel me to walk around with some of those devices sticking out of my ear. Assuming I am not alone in my Bluetooth independence, is it possible the market demand is not as great as some have claimed?
A little tarnished
Assuming there is a real need for multiple wireless personal communication devices as claimed by the manufacturers, the fact remains that Bluetooth has been hit by interoperability and security concerns.
The fact remains that Bluetooth has been hit by interoperability and security concerns.
Warwick Ashford, Technology editor, ITWeb
At one time car manufacturers were up in arms about the incompatibility of Bluetooth microphones with some mobile phones, and scares about Snarf attacks and Bluejacking had device makers scrambling to allay fears when researchers uncovered flaws in the authentication and data transfer mechanisms of some Bluetooth devices.
It is difficult to believe the image of Bluetooth was not a little tarnished by all the frustration and doubt, despite what the companies belonging to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group would have the market believe.
Recent initiatives by manufacturers to drive the sales of Bluetooth devices have led me to suspect all is not well. If vendors are resorting to introducing devices to make non-Bluetooth PCs compatible with Bluetooth devices, could this be an indication that sales have not continued to grow as expected?
Even if we allow that compatibility and security were but fleeting concerns, competing wireless technologies cannot be ignored. The success of the 802.11 Ethernet wireless standards really means Bluetooth will never be much more than a cable replacement technology, and as such, it is extremely vulnerable.
Beginning of the end
As recently as last week the US Federal Communications Commission certified a new chip by Motorola spinoff, Freescale that is aimed at supporting ultrawideband technology. The move marks a significant move forward for ultrawideband, which I suspect could signal the beginning of the end for Bluetooth.
Ultrawideband is clearly direct competition to Bluetooth because it is also a wireless technology for transmitting data between various digital devices, but it is reported to be much faster than Bluetooth and better suited to handling the vast amounts of data required by multimedia content.
By all accounts, ultrawideband is ideally suited for the wireless transfer of content such as video from digital recorders, to high-definition television sets or connecting mobile computers to data projectors.
This likely successor to Bluetooth gets its competitive advantage from the wide band of radio frequency spectrum that enables the transfer of greater amounts of data and the lower power pulsed data delivery that makes transfer rates faster.
Considering the signs, I would have to back ultrawideband to win, but the technology race is seldom a two horse race and has often been won by rank outsiders, which explains why I am not a gambler, particularly when it comes to technology where the best may not necessarily win.
Renewed efforts to drive Bluetooth devices into the market may well succeed in stalling ultrawideband, particularly with Microsoft giving it the thumbs up by extending Bluetooth support in its recent release of Windows XP Service Pack 2. With support like that, who knows? Bluetooth may emerge the winner after all.
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