Bluetooth is still teething.

Despite efforts from industry giants to get products based on the wireless communications protocol to market by next year, the nascent radio-based technology still faces several obstacles. They include living up to Bluetooth's hype and living down early reports of security and safety glitches.

Critics say Bluetooth could suffer from too much marketing and too little testing, but analysts remain convinced that the technology will eventually prevail.

At the Bluetooth Congress in Monte Carlo earlier this month, Intel and Microsoft announced a joint effort to develop native support for Bluetooth for the Windows operating system due next year.

Bluetooth, which lets devices communicate wirelessly at close range, has gained much attention in the industry because of its potential to allow mobile phones to communicate with PCs and PDAs, or personal digital assistants.

Windows support clutch
3Com, Ericsson, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia and Toshiba America lead the Bluetooth Special Interest Group standards body, which now has more than 1,900 companies as members. Microsoft was a latecomer to the SIG, but members let the company have a leadership position because operating system and application support is vital to the communications protocol.

Microsoft and Intel are developing a standard for PC platforms to interface with mobile phones using Bluetooth. Compaq, IBM, Dell, Toshiba and most other major PC makers use Intel chips and Microsoft software in most of their computers.

Separately, Intel launched a business group that is dedicated to developing Intel-branded Bluetooth products. These will include wireless PC Cards and access points among other components for PCs, PDAs and mobile phones. Meanwhile, Ericsson and Xircom are collaborating on Bluetooth products for cell phones, PCs and PDAs.

Widcomm announced a reference design for its Bluecard PCMCIA card to get Bluetooth into laptops, and Motorola announced joint development deals with IBM and Toshiba to do the same thing.

But Bluetooth, which has been in development for several years, still faces hurdles -- not the least of which is wireless marketing folks' habit of putting the hype before the horse.

Too much, too soon?
Several Bluetooth Congress attendees voiced concern that companies were marketing Bluetooth as the be-all and end-all technology -- your toaster will talk to your car and so on -- when it will be years before the technology is ready for applications.

Thus, even when Bluetooth products, which were due last year, finally come out, they may not live up to expectations. Devices based on WAP (Wireless Access Protocol), which enables phones to tap Internet data, have already faced such problems.

By the same token, other Bluetooth advocates fear that a rush to market will mean launching products that have minimum interoperability, thus negating the point of a standard.

"This could lead Bluetooth into the same trap that was experienced with (infrared) and the poor consumer reaction to early WAP services," said Nick Hunn, research and development director at TDK Systems Europe. "There is a real danger of early Bluetooth products not supporting the concept of 'out-of-box' working."

Testing still incomplete
The testing process started in December 1994 but is still in a holding pattern because not all the testing devices are available yet --it's impossible to make sure one device works with another when one of them doesn't exist yet.

Beyond basic hardware compatibility, developers still face interoperability hurdles with applications. Even if the hardware can communicate and even with native support in the operating system, "what's missing is the detailed application work within applications themselves," said Randy Giusto, an analyst at IDC.

It will take time to iron out these problems because application vendors must have access to Bluetooth hardware before they can start testing software.

There are also interference issues. Bluetooth runs on the same radio frequency as the 802.11 wireless LAN standard, so interference with wireless LANs is a problem that has yet to be solved. There are safety and security concerns as well. Airline industry members are concerned about Bluetooth's ability to turn on a device automatically when it receives a signal --a potential hazard during flight.

Computer industry members worry about wireless transactions. Bluetooth provides link-level security but not much else. Mobile phone makers are working on a way to merge wireless Internet data protocols with Bluetooth, but there is no official way to do that yet.

Competition good for price
Competition can be dangerous when a standard is not yet completed because manufacturers have a tendency to try to control the standards efforts, but analysts say this does not yet seem to be the case with Bluetooth. "The more increased competition, the better likelihood of seeing price go down," IDC's Giusto said.

"We're definitely following it because [we are] an extremely mobile organisation, [and] this could have significant benefit to our core business," said one IT manager. "We'll just keep our fingers crossed that it materialises in some useful fashion."

Bluetooth was named for a 10th century Danish Viking who unified Denmark and Norway. IDC sees Bluetooth products becoming prevalent at the end of next year or the start of 2002.

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