Bluetooth

Bluetooth History Why does Bluetooth have the most industry buzz? "You have to appreciate the history of Bluetooth," said David McCall, senior applications engineer at chipmaker Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) in the UK. "The first thing about Bluetooth that the people at Ericsson talked about nearly five years ago was a marketing document. "They saw the global market for a low-power, short range wireless LAN solution, and Bluetooth's technical documents grew from that marketing document. …

…overnight," she said. Look at how long it's taken to put a cable modem into the set-top box. Cable modems were in only 18 percent of all the digital boxes in 1999, yet In-Stat projects that modems to be in 89 percent of the boxes by 2004." Putscher expects slower cable penetration for Bluetooth. "I've spoken with cable people who say they won't be ready to make any Bluetooth announcements for at least six months. Talk to me then."