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Is 'next year' finally here for wireless technology?

By Jon Fortt
Knight Ridder Newspapers

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Mike McCamon is clearly frustrated, but he's doing well at holding it together. He is Mr. Bluetooth.

That's Bluetooth, the wireless technology. You might have heard of it — the cable-replacement miracle that was supposed to clear the clutter around your personal computer, banish the annoying wire from your cellphone headset and "cure the common cold," as McCamon wryly put it.

McCamon is executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, an outfit based in Kansas whose mission is to perfect and promote the technical standard. He is wise not to make promises. Like most everything else technology-related, Bluetooth got over-hyped during the late '90s. Bluetooth boosters from companies long bankrupt kept promising it would be everywhere "next year."

"Next year" finally arrives in the United States in 2004 based on evidence at the Bluetooth Americas event in San Jose, Calif., last month and talk from companies that manufacture wireless chips, bolstered by wireless keyboards, mice and printers in the personal computer world. In Europe, Bluetooth-enabled cellphones are emerging as digital hubs in place of the PC.

Wireless technologies Bluetooth: Short-range, low-speed and battery-preserving for pocket-size devices such as cellphones and headsets, good for delivering voice or text data over about 30 feet. Available in tens of millions of devices. Wi-Fi: Medium-range, medium-speed and battery-guzzling, for devices that get plugged in daily; good for delivering broadband Internet content over about 100 feet. Available in tens of millions of devices. Ultra-wideband: Medium-range, high-speed and battery-preserving for home-theater systems, good for delivering high-quality music and video streams over about 200 feet. Not yet available. Wide area: Long-range, low-speed and battery-guzzling, for connecting cellphones or devices to a regional voice or data network. Available in hundreds of millions of devices. — Knight Ridder Newspapers

But McCamon won't make the leap to say Bluetooth has arrived. So many boosters have been wrong before.

"I don't like hyping stuff," McCamon said. "I'm a Midwest kind of guy."

Others in the industry are more willing. Says Scott Bibaud, a marketing director at the Bluetooth chip-making unit at Broadcom: "This year, the volumes are good enough that we were happy. In 2004, we think the volumes are going to be really, really high."

Still, past predictions haunt him, noting that he has been quoted in the past as saying "it would be a Blue Christmas in 2002."

Some forces still are holding back Bluetooth, particularly in the United States. Verizon Wireless and SprintPCS, the two major carriers whose cellular networks are based on CDMA wireless technology, largely have shunned Bluetooth. Rivals Cingular Wireless, AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile USA have embraced it.

Tough to get a handle on

Besides being tough to forecast, Bluetooth is a complex concept to describe, which many in the technology industry say is a big part of the problem. At the most basic level, Bluetooth wirelessly connects one electronic device to others in the same room — say, a printer to a PC, or a headset to a cellphone. And the items don't even need to be in clear sight of one another.

The connections happen at a low speed similar to USB 1.0, which is fast enough to send digital music or speech from one device to another, but too slow to send full-motion video.

But with this low speed comes Bluetooth's advantage over Wi-Fi, the choice technology for wirelessly sharing Internet connections. Bluetooth uses very little power, making it the ideal connection technology for items such as tiny cellphone headsets that can't hold a big battery, or wireless mice and keyboards.

Companies could put Wi-Fi into those items, but it would be silly; Wi-Fi guzzles so much power that the "wireless" mouse and keyboard would need to be plugged into the wall every few hours.

Bluetooth could indeed clear the tangled jungle that lives under your home PC and stretches over to the scanner, the digital camera, the PDA.

Apple Computer, known for doing the cool things first, now offers Bluetooth in all of its PowerBook professional notebooks, and as a built-in option in its iMacs and Power Macs. Rivals in the PC industry are preparing similar products for release by late 2004.

Many uses

There is a lot Bluetooth could do. Eliminating the need to shop for another $20 cable each time you buy a printer might be enough on its own. But the technology is tragically weakened by its scarcity because Bluetooth devices only become useful when they encounter another like them. Both ends of the connection must be Bluetooth-equipped.

The case is growing stronger though, because there is convincing evidence of Bluetooth's imminent arrival:

• Several BMWs, the Toyota Prius and a few other cars now come with Bluetooth as an option for hands-free cellphone use, alongside sunroof and CD changer.

• Logitech is selling a "wireless hub" for Windows PCs. It connects to Logitech's Bluetooth-enabled optical mouse, keyboard, headset and most any other Bluetooth device, including phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson.

• Headset maker Plantronics, which already has a Bluetooth model on the market, said it will increase its Bluetooth research budget by 25 percent in 2004. Taiwanese manufacturers have begun claiming they can supply core Bluetooth headset technology for $14.50 each, which suggests $29 headsets could arrive in Europe as soon as 2004.

• Infinite Range has begun marketing circuit boards that iPod accessory maker XtremeMac plans to build into a new product in 2004. The product uses Bluetooth to beam music from Apple's iPod to nearby audio systems without the fuzzy interference that comes with FM tuners.

• This fall, devices carrying Bluetooth technology began shipping at a rate of 1 million a week, which is impressive even though seven out of 10 of those devices are cellphones. In 2004, Bibaud, the Broadcom marketing executive, expects between 130 million and 140 million Bluetooth devices will ship.

Americans wondering where all those cool new Bluetooth devices are going need only gaze across an ocean. Roughly 65 percent are sold in Europe, 25 percent in Asia and just 10 percent in the United States.

Why U.S. lags

Why is the United States so far behind? For starters, the country's largest cellphone maker and its largest wireless provider, Motorola and Verizon, both decided to put Bluetooth on the back burner. Though it has dabbled in Bluetooth, Motorola has not rolled out a product line, though a company representative at Bluetooth Americas said in 2004 Motorola will be ready to jump in.

European rival Nokia, which has beaten Motorola to market lately on camera phones, already ships 18 phones with Bluetooth enabled, and it plans more in 2004.

Verizon and Sprint, whose cellphone also is based on CDMA technology, are both likely to start feeling more pressure to include a Bluetooth handset in their phone lineups. Up to this point, both companies have seemed to regard Bluetooth as a competitor to the PC cards it markets for bringing Internet access to laptops — and neither company has suggested that its view is changing.

"The Trojan horse that's going to solve the problem is the car industry," McCamon said. He says he has heard from frustrated owners of Bluetooth-equipped cars who have Verizon and Sprint service and wonder why those carriers don't have phones that can talk to the car. He enjoys directing those customers to vent their frustration to Verizon and Sprint.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company