Microsoft has announced it will release a Bluetooth-connected keyboard and mouse later this year, as well as support for the struggling network standard in Windows XP.
Bluetooth as a connection methodology got a shot in the arm today when Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, speaking at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle, announced that the software giant would release a keyboard and mouse combination that utilise Bluetooth for connectivity to Windows PCs.
Microsoft is no stranger to the mouse and keyboard market, and in most countries Microsoft products go head to head with the best the market has to offer. The choice to go with Bluetooth is an interesting one, as Microsoft has only recently released its first wireless keyboard; a product category that was up until now all but completely dominated by Logitech. According to Mellissa Dewric, Microsoft's Australian Home & Retail Marketing Manager, the Bluetooth offerings should appeal initially to early adopters who want to take advantage of networking technology.
Microsoft's plans for Bluetooth hardware include shipping a USB1.1 Bluetooth transceiver. The transceiver will communicate with the keyboard and mouse as well as other Bluetooth enabled devices. Personal Area Networking (PAN) like this is central to the Bluetooth concept, but up until now has yet to be convincingly demonstrated to an audience which has warmed to other wireless networking technologies such as 802.11b and 802.11a. Bluetooth's comparatively low bandwidth has been seen by many as an Achilles heel, even though the specification was never really offered up as a full networking replacement.
Keyboards and mice hardly need the bandwidth that Bluetooth offer, but there are other theoretical advantages to Bluetooth connectivity. As a standard, it was designed with battery life in mind, and it's possible that Bluetooth keyboards and mice may have advantages over their radio-based brethren. It's likely to be more noticeable in the keyboard than the mouse, however -- unlike the ball and socket mouse of the Microsoft Wireless desktop, the Microsoft Bluetooth mouse is going to be an optical mouse, similar to the Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer.
The other area Microsoft announced as part of its 'Desktop Solution' was Bluetooth support for Windows XP. This is built around a Bluetooth stack for Windows XP. Integrating Bluetooth support into Windows XP like this is probably more important to Bluetooth's success than any number of keyboards Microsoft may choose to release. With the widespread acceptance of higher bandwidth 802.11a and 802.11g products, not having Bluetooth inbuilt to Windows XP was definitively a barrier to its acceptance. Any hardware products built on the Windows XP Bluetooth stack will be compatible, Dewick said, which brings up the possibility of hardware manufacturers other than Microsoft building around the software framework.
Microsoft expects to be selling the keyboard, mouse and wireless transceiver in Australia sometime in the second half of 2002, around the same time that support for Bluetooth in Windows XP comes to market.
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