Bluetooth Shipments Exceed 1M per Week

An anonymous reader writes "Just when you think that Bluetooth is dead... The Bluetooth SIG releases a press story that quotes some pretty impressive figures - over 1M Bluetooth enabled devices have been shipped within a week. Bluetooth wireless technology has been quietly making progress over the past year and can now be found in an impressive array of consumer products, from mobile phones and headsets to PDAs, PCs, MP3 players and even automobiles. The technology has reached critical mass, with several books on how to write your own applications with the technology, including Java for those of you who want to create your own Bluetooth apps for your SonyEricsson P900"

Comments

Interesting.

[Ikeya]

Perhaps this is the beginning of the end of the "beginning of the end of bluetooth" statements?

Technology takes time

[Drakonian]

New technologies take time to get established. Obvious but true. Think of how long it took for video rental stores to get a DVD section.

Re:Technology takes time

[wishus]

Can somebody tell me exactly where bluetooth's niche is?

High speed, short range, low power use, no line of sight?

Also, if you are thinking about 802.11x as a wireless ethernet cable, think of BlueTooth as a wireless USB cable. They've got different purposes.

You can thnk Apple for this

[oscast]

Funny... Bluetooth was considered totally dead only a short while ago... then Apple started integrating it into their products... pushing the technology very hard, and now, suddenly we get this news a short while after. Anyone who says that Apple doesn't influence technology trends is either blind or ignorant.

Re:You can thnk Apple for this

[Sycraft-fu]

Ahh yes, the favourite logical falacy around here. I'll repeat again: Correlation does NOT imply causation. This applies to everything.

Now while Apple's adoption helps Bluetooth, I would say it is far less influential than the PDAs and cells getting it, since they seem to be the most popular use for it.

It would be like saying Apple is driving gigabit ethernet. I mean, they stuck it in their towers and now its getting popular so it MUST be Aple's doing right? Wrong. Back when Apple introduced GigE in their towers many of the Mac people I know were all excited and babbled on about using it at home and at work. That dried up real quick when they found out that a 4 port switch would run them $1000 for a crappy brand. They stayed at 100mbit, and many still are there.

However all that while our university was busily buying gig stuff to upgrade the network, as were many others. It allowed moving the core and other highspeed links from ATM back to ethernet. This paved the way for layer-3 switching on the whole campus. Now all switch level links are being upgraded.

Well, funny thing, all this buying of expensive gig technology (as well as other places such as servers) drove the cost down. Now instead of being $300 for a gig ccard and $1000 for a small switch at consumer prices it's $25 for a cheapie gig card and $130 for an 8 port switch. So now we are seeing more intrest in the consumer market. The gig chips are cheap enough that most SI's are now using them (since there isn't a significant cost savings over 10/100) and the switches are cheap enough that they are a viable option if you want the speed. Given a bit more time, it'll be to the point where it's the same price more or less.

Well, it WASN'T Apple that drove it to that point. Had Apple integrated gig and large networks uttely ignored it, it would be a dead or dying technology. They simply aren't a big enough market to drive a technology like that.

Same for Firewire. Firewire was NOT a success because it was an Apple product, it was a success because it is an excellent high speed bus that the audio and video industry jumped on. The fact that it's in Macs didn't make it successful (though it was a fact) the fact that it's in Sony cameras and MOTU audio interfaces and so on did.

Apple DOES influence technology, of course, just as most large tech firms do. They are not the be-all, end-all, however, or the massive trend setter that the fanboys seem to think. When they adopt a technology it helps it, as any company adopting a technology helps it, but it does NOT make or break it.

Bluetooth is spreading

[ElGuapoGolf]

I'm sure I'm going to see a lot of "I've never seen anyone using bluetooth, so who cares" type comments, but this misses the larger point.

Bluetooth *is* spreading. You can buy cars now that are bluetooth enabled. And trust me, it'd be nice to have your calls come over your speakers and have your voice picked up by a mic in a car. This is the kind of stuff that makes people *want* this technology.

Most PDAs come with bluetooth. The idea of being able to pick up a palm, hit a button and check my email while my phone is sitting in my bag or coat is pretty cool. No more cables to fumble with or IR ports to line up. This is the kind of stuff that makes geeks want this technology.

And that's what's cool about bluetooth, IMO. It has geek appeal, and regular people can see the value in it too.

BlueTooth Rocks!

[binaryDigit]

I have a SE T616 phone, a Clie NZ90 and a BT dongle on my PC and PowerBook (I also have a DCR-PC120BT Sony DV camcorder with BT, but I haven't actually found a good use for it's BT support). I sync both the T616 and NZ90 via BT with my PC (WinXP and Outlook). I use the T616 as a BT modem on both the Clie and the PowerBook.

For syncing BT is great because I don't have to have a bunch of usb cables spider webbing out to my devices. My phone stays on my belt and the pda just sits where ever it's most convenient. I just press sync in outlook for the phone, or tap sync on the Clie and they just start syncing. Nice. No more having to plug cables in and remember to unplug to actually use the device.

Using the phone as a modem via BT is also great since I usually do this "out in the field", where if I had to drag my phone out of my pocket (where it usually is when I'm out and about) and have a cable running from it to either the Clie or PB, then that would suck. This way it stays where ever I have it (pocket, bag, backpack, maybe even not on me, but close by). It's very nice being able to just whip out the Clie and start surfing instantly.

Now all that said, getting all this wonder and joy to work was a pain in the butt to say the least. Support for USB dongles is sketchy even under XP (OSX is better, but still requires tweaking). And having two different things trying to sync on the desktop can confuse the heck out of the software. But when it's all sorted out, its great.

So I would say, you aint really a nerd unless everything you buy from this point on has BT built in. If you are poo pooing it, take a look first, once you start using it, you aint ever gonna go back.

Re:RIP BT

[infiniti99]

Bluetooth keyboards and mice are new, give it some time and we will have more designs to choose from, I'm sure.

For a good and inexpensive bluetooth phone, get a Nokia 6310i. B&W display, long battery life, no frills, but has the stuff you actually want, like bluetooth and GPRS.

Bluetooth device pairing is necessary for security. There are some functions that don't require pairing for convenience sake, such as sending business cards, and there was an earlier /. story about how this can be abused. I can imagine it would be much worse if pranksters could use your phone for dialing out!

I do agree that most bluetooth devices are much too expensive. I think this is mostly an issue with sales and not the cost of making the chips. Remember when USB was a premium?

I think Bluetooth's saving factor will be Apple. Recently they have started embedding the support into their computers, and even created a wireless mouse. I've seen their software interface, and it is very easy to use. Don't you love it how Apple always steps in and says, "Dammit people, you do it like this!" and it becomes a huge success? :)

!(RIP BT)

[int2str]

> Working on Pocket PC/Windows Mobile/whatever is kinda expected

I am working on a implementation for a major PocketPC manufacturer. It will come, trust me.

> A reasonably inexpensive phone with BT

My wife and I just got not one, but two Ericsson T616 (with BT) for FREE. Look around the offers are out there.

> Weren't these chips supposed to cost like $5?

Yes, and they are starting to! If you go to csr.com right now you (end user) can buy a CSR bluecore module for $14 a piece (that's for 5). Put in a discount for large orders and you're probably pretty darn close to $5...

> Why am I nearly doubling the cost of a US$200 phone to get it?

You are not. No idea where you get that number from...

> I'd be happy with a phone that did nothing but dial in and out, with BT (interfacing with a headset, pda dialer, etc would be nice - eg to the point where I don't even need an onboard address book - if I do have one, I want to be able to sync it with the PIM of my choice, like outlook).

You can do ALL of these RIGHT NOW with a HP iPaq and a Bluetooth enabled phone (like the T616, T68i, Nokia 3650+++).

So before you declare Bluetooth RIP, some research would have been nice :).

Bluetooth can be really fun. Ask my wife. She's beaming Ringtones like crazy, synching her address book with outlook and surfing the net on her notebook.

Cheers,
Andre

Bluetooth audio

[digitaleus]

Something I'd be keen to see is digital audio over bluetooth. My living room has a stereo with a sizeable list of stuff plugged into it - but the list is hardly extraordinary.

• External CD Player
• PC
• DVD
• VCR
• Turntables
• (radio built into the amp)

The result? A clutter of tables and periodic fiddling behind the back of my stereo to change cables (not enough inputs).

It would be nice if all of the sound devices could connect to the amp, and the amp would give me a little LCD menu of the devices. And when someone brings over their latest sound toy, the amp would pick it up and add it to the menu. No cables, no hassles.