All the things that are connected by cables can now be connected without. Bluetooth is being slated as the technology that will propel us into a new dimension of wireless connectivity.
Bluetooth is being predicted as the wireless link between all mobile devices and if there's to be one application that will be the centre of all things wireless, it'll be the mobile phone.
"Mobile phones - that's where you'll find the driving force behind Bluetooth," Goran Svennarp, technology marketing manager, Ericsson, said at an IBC Bluetooth conference in Sydney.
"The [Bluetooth-enabled] mobile phone could be the centre of your world - that you can connect to any kind of device."
Some delays
Although the rollout of Bluetooth has been delayed by about six months, there will potentially be three billion Bluetooth-enabled devices on the market by 2005, according to Svennarp.
This will include mobile phones, personal digital assistants, printers, CD-players, televisions, VCRs and DVDs.
Cahners In-Stat Group claims penetration of Bluetooth devices will reach 1.4 billion by the year 2005 and Merrill Lynch believes there will be 2.2 billion Bluetooth-enabled devices on the market within five years.
The forecasts may differ slightly but all point to the fact that the up-take of Bluetooth is expected to surpass, in a much shorter time-span, that of any other application.
Boom or bust?
It took 100 years for fixed telephony to reach one billion subscribers. The Internet took 30 years to reach that number of users and the mobile market will have one billion subscribers by 2003 - by which time it will have taken it 10 years to reach that subscriber level, according to Svennarp.
"Bluetooth market penetration is booming higher than other trends," he said.
It is predicted that Bluetooth will be the power behind Private Area Networks (PAN), which will provide ad hoc networking scenarios. It will be the force behind wireless printers, which transmit content from mobile phones, and Bluetooth will be profiled in cars - enabling passengers to surf the Net in the backseat.
"We will see Bluetooth booming in the next six months," Svennarp said.
